Shifters 1: Beginnings
by Mrowrkat98
Summary: We've got no choice. You could call it a choice, but it's not. We've been thrown into a war that we couldn't possibly fight. FINISHED
1. Cassidy

I wish I owned Animorphs, but I don't, It's all K.A.'s

**A/N: I'd like to apologise to those of you who were reading my story when I stopped posting. And I'd like to especially apologise to my wonderful beta for leaving her hanging. I ran into a brick wall a while back and now I'm reworking the story a bit. You probably won't notice much of a difference until chapter 5. I hope to post more often now, so thanks for your patience.**

Chapter 1

Cassidy

My name is Cassidy.

I wish I were still the way I was that morning. That fateful morning when my world was turned upside down, I wasn't contemplating the fate of our planet. I wasn't waking up from a horrible nightmare. I wasn't crying in fear that I wouldn't live through the next day.

No. Instead, I was waking up from an eventless night in my leopard-print pajamas. I was contemplating whether I should hang out with Mark or not. I was smiling at the thought of his smile.

So when I stood up and looked in the mirror, I found myself bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Totally happy to be alone at the moment, I hummed as I dressed in combat pants and a pink tank top. Yes, pink. Usually I don't wear pink, but lately, I've decided to make an exception, because Mark said it looked really good on me. He's right, I thought as I roughly bloused my combats with a hair elastic. It complements my olive skin, and helps bring out my hazel eyes, which is hard to do, considering my eyes and skin are roughly the same color. I put some extra-strength gel in my short hair so it stood straight up and straightened out my excessively long bangs. It was a strangely opposite look from most people, who have their hair long and bangs short, but hey, look at what I was wearing. I'm just that kind of person. I do what I think looks good, and nobody can change my mind.

Again my thoughts wandered back to Mark, as I had known they would. It seemed like he was the only person I could think about lately. I smiled again, a ridiculous smile that would have made my skin crawl with disgust had I seen it on anyone else's face. It had to be a good sign. I loved Mark, I just had yet to say it. We had been going out about one month. One month since I first fell for his gorgeous black hair and charming smile. He was the sort of person that everyone likes, a natural athelete, even though he didn't play any sports. He wasn't the most popular guy though, don't get me wrong. He was always in the shadow of his friends who played a lot of hockey. You know that person everyone overlooks when they talk to the jocks? That's Mark. But at the beginning of the year, he walked up to me and just out of the blue asked me out. I considered it, and after much persuading on my friends' part, I said yes. After all, how could I resist those gorgeous glittering green eyes?

So maybe today I would hang out with him. We could go to a movie, then maybe for a romantic walk on the beach… I shook the thought from my head. Man, I was becoming more of a ditz each day. The beach? Get real, Cassidy. You hate the beach.

I sighed and took one last look in the mirror. Deciding that I wasn't looking like too much of a beast, I walked out into the kitchen for breakfast. Glancing into the living room, I saw my mother on the couch in a robe. An empty tub of iced cream lay on the carpet with a metal spoon poking out, alongside several various alcoholic drinks. No beer though, my mother had far too much _class_ to drink beer. There were used Kleenexes all over the floor and the couch, and her eyes were red and puffy.

"Mom, do you want some breakfast?" I asked politely. Mom was always a sticker for manners.

"I'll come make some myself," she said, speech slightly slurred. She must have been up all night.

"Really mom, it's okay. I'll make you breakfast. Do you want eggs? Cereal? Toast? Don't get up." She tried anyway, and fell back onto the couch.

"No honey, I should be making you breakfast, not the other way around. The parent takes care of the child." I sighed, I wasn't winning this one.

"I'm not very hungry anyway, I'll just have an apple." I grabbed one out of the dish on the counter and went to my room before she could protest.

Most kids would hate their parents for drinking. Most kids would get frustrated with their parent's binges, trying to get out of the house as soon as possible. That's what my sister did. As soon mom started drinking, Amber moved across the country, hoping to be out of my mother's reach as soon as possible. Then again, Amber was really only my half-sister. She didn't feel responsible for my mother's sorrow the way I did.

See, about two months ago, my dad just walked out on my mom for no apparent reason. One night they were kissing and hugging and happy, the next my dad walked in with another woman on his arm, saying it couldn't possibly have worked between them. He left that night, and I cried. Shortly after, Amber also left, and I was stuck in this cycle of trying to help and being refused. After a while I found small ways to help, such as slipping money into my mother's purse when she was 'impaired', or doing all the chores while she was out. I got a job coaching gymnastics at the club. It paid about sixty bucks a week. Things like that, in hope that soon she would get over my father. He was a jerk. End of story, get over it mom. But I had to be there for her, because through thick and thin, she had always been there for me.

And now I sat in my room, listening to the faint clanking of dishes as mother attempted to make her own breakfast and eating an apple. Then, and only then, did something revolutionary happen. Such a small event, that someone would hardly think to describe it as a huge turning point in their life. Someone other than me, because at that moment, the phone rang.


	2. Danielle

Chapter 2

Danielle

"Hello?" the irritated voice on the other side of the phone demanded.

"Hello, is Cassidy there?" I asked feebly.

"You've got her."

"Oh, um… hi, it's Danielle."

A pause. "Hey Danielle, what's going on?" she asked suspiciously. With every right too, she was probably wondering why the hell her boyfriend's little sister was calling.

"Oh, I was just wondering if maybe you wanted to go to the park with Mark and I," I tried to say brightly, failing miserably.

"Did Mark ask you to call me?" She was still suspicious.

"No," I said, "I just figured maybe we could hang out, get to know each other?" I held my breath.

"Yeah… right, okay," she said reluctantly, "what time?"

"How about an hour from now?"

"See you there." And she hung up. It was common to expect such a lack of manners from Cassidy. She rarely gave anyone any kind of respect, a sort of arrogance I suppose comes from the years of every social outcast trying to be like her. I put down the receiver and fell back onto my bed. _Why me?_ I asked. I didn't even really like my brother's girlfriend, it just seemed like a good idea. Now that I thought of it, I highly regretted calling. I would be seen as even more of a dork now that I seemed desperate enough to try and hang out with people I hardly knew or had anything in common with. Not that I didn't have friends, I hang out with Kayla a lot, but lately, she's been hanging out at this place called the Sharing. I went there for a while, but since she became an elite member, I've felt sort of shunned and quit. She's still in air cadets with me though, so we talk.

I sighed and sat up slowly. A mirror covered about half of the wall across from my bed, and I regretted having it installed. Having to stare at myself all the time wasn't the most amazingly fun thing ever.

"Dannnnnie." A squawking voice called from beside my bed.

"Magggggic," I replied affectionately. The gray parrot ruffled his wings.

"Food!" he screeched happily. "Magic wants crackers!"

"Magic is crackers," I said jokingly as I passed a baby cracker from the box on my dresser through the bars of his cage. Why did my mother insist on teaching my bird clichés?

"Bye Magic," I said as I walked to the door. But instead of walking out, I stopped at the mirror. Something had caught my eye. A glimmer or something, but it was gone. To convince myself that I wasn't going crazy, I ran my fingers through my excessively long brown hair and checked my outfit. I was wearing a huge tee-shirt, as in, extra large huge, and it dwarfed my tiny figure. Great, I looked even more like a sewing pin.

"Danielle!" Mark called, "How many eggs do you want?"

He was making breakfast? Sweet deal.

"Two," I replied. "I'll be up in a minute."

That was a lie. I was upstairs in about ten seconds. I sat down at the table casually, watching my brother cook.

"Want bacon?" he asked.

"Sure. By the by, we're meeting your girlfriend in the park at ten."

"When'd you talk to Cassidy?" he asked.

"This morning."

Mark's face hardened a bit. "Danielle, don't screw this up for me. I really like her and I want you to keep your nose out of this."

"It's okay Mark, I just wanted to get to know her. I don't know, for some reason I just wanted to call her."

Mark accepted that explanation wholeheartedly. It kind of creeped me out that he didn't ask any more questions, but if it works…

Mark brought two dishes of food to the table.

"So you really like her huh?" I said, hoping to provoke him. "You get all googley-eyed when you see her?"

"Yes, and can I ask you a question?"

"Sure."

"Why are younger siblings such a pain in the butt? Do they brief you before you're born or something?"

"No, it's little-sisterly instinct," I teased. "Have you kissed her?"

"We've been going out for a month Danielle, of course I've kissed her."

"Tongue or no tongue."

"You're getting a bit personal."

"C'mon, I'm just asking."

"Bite me."

"Okay." I leaned over, pretending to actually try to bite his shoulder.

"Hey!" he yelled, pushing his chair back in surprise and pushing my head away from him. "What are you, two?"

I batted my eyes mockingly. "Only if you want me to be, Marky darling."

"Okay, gross. You're just jealous because I'm going out with someone and you aren't."

"So?"

"So don't make fun of Cassidy, or I'll let her know and you can deal with her."

He had a point, an angry Cassidy was about as safe as an angry lion.

"Getting your girlfriend to fight your battles now?" I asked, refusing to give up. "What a shame, and I thought you were a guy."

"Damn rights she's fighting my battles," he laughed. "She can do it way better than I can."

We laughed and finished our breakfast, washing the dishes quickly and heading outside to the barn. We have a huge property outside of town because my dad has a trail rides business. We live next to a sort of resort area, and they give my dad most of his business. He also does horseback-riding lessons for groups of kids. We have a total of twelve horses. My horse is Snow White, a very appropriately named white horse. Mark's horse is named Killer. (He named it when he was six.) It's an albino: Black with a white mane and tail. Rare as it is, it was a child of mom and dad's first horses. Lots of people put offers on it but they gave it to Mark as a Christmas present.

I untied my horse. Most kids have bikes. I however, have a horse. My parents are so weird.

We rode into town, heading straight to Paula's house. There, we tied our horses in the barn and gave them some sugar cubes.

Paula's a good friend of my father's. They went to high school together and she works at the Sharing. She long ago gave us permission to leave our horses with her when we came into town. Luckily, she wasn't home. Otherwise we'd have to talk for about an hour and come inside for tea. Paula's so old-fasioned.

We walked to the park and met Cassidy there.

"Hey Mark," she said casually, but I saw her whole face light up when she saw him. It was so cute, except for the fact that it was my brother. She quickly tried to hide the excitement on her face.

"Hey Cassidy," he said. "You know my sister, Danielle."

"Yeah." She said shortly. "So, do you want to go to a movie later? I won tickets at the last dance."

"Sure," Mark said. He seemed distracted. "I'm going to go get iced cream, you two play nice," and he left.

"Well, that was interesting," Cassidy muttered, just before a sandy-haired girl plowed into her.


	3. Sarah and Jennifer

**Note- everything in apostrophes, like 'Sarah', is sign language. **

Chapter 3

Sarah

My name is Sarah, as you may have noticed.

I woke up with a groggy feeling. Maybe we shouldn't have stayed up until four in the morning. The red neon numbers on my clock read nine-thirty. Maybe ten more minutes of sleep…

"SARAH!" A voice called from downstairs.

I groaned. "Coming!" I yelled back sleepily. Maybe not ten more minutes. I yawned and swung my feet over to the side of the bed. Jennifer lay on the floor in one of my old sleeping bags. Her dirty blonde hair was sprawled everywhere and her eyes were open. Metallic irises stared blankly at the end of my bed. I put on my slippers and, careful not to trip over Jennifer, headed downstairs.

Mom waited for me at the bottom of the steps. "Sarah, honey, can I borrow that top of yours? The red one with the v-neck?"

"Why?" I asked.

"Duh, sweetheart, we're going to California. I need something to wear to the clubs."

"Promise you won't puke on it?" I joked, my mother never got drunk at clubs. She only went there for the atmosphere and music.

She gave me 'the look', and I smiled. "Be right back."

I returned seconds later, silky red top in hand. "Have fun mom."

"We'll call you both down before we go, okay?" She said as she turned towards the living room.

"Okay."

I headed back upstairs. "Jennifer," I said, bouncing softly on the ground beside her. "Wakie wakie."

She groaned and waved a hand, indicating that maybe I shouldn't bother her when she's only had five hours of sleep.

I laughed. "Fine." But really, I was more talking to myself. I headed to the bathroom and stripped off my clothes, tying my red hair up in a loose bun and covering it with a shower cap. My hair was really long and took forever to wash. Besides, it was almost perfectly clean anyway. No worries.

I turned on the tap and soaked myself in the warm water and steam.

**Jennifer **

It was different for me that morning. I didn't wake up because of the horrid screeching of Sarah's shower. Neither did I wake to the sunshine that was peeking through the blinds. I woke because the ground was vibrating beneath me, on account of the water pipe running below Sarah's floor and the heat of the sun was almost cooking me inside my sleeping bag. I kicked it off lazily and groped for the edge of Sarah's bed. Finding it, I hoisted myself up and opened the blinds and windows fully. Ah, the fresh early autumn air.

I found my collapsible cane on Sarah's bedside table. Using it, I managed to find my way to the spare bathroom to wash up. I touched the mirror's smooth surface gently. Sarah said you could see yourself in it. She used it before we went to dances especially. It had to be boring standing in front of the mirror for hours on end fixing your hair and clothes, even though in the next hour your hair would be a horrible mess and your clothes would have moved from dancing to the beat. Being blind and deaf does have its advantages, such as my ability to feel vibrations, no matter how small. Standing next to the speakers at a dance, I can vividly feel every up and down in the music, and the way that the steady beat of my heart seems to sway to accommodate the strange new vibrations. Dancing is one of my favorite things to do, as is Sarah's. Though I can't go to dance class, I still enjoy the school dances, which brings me back to the point of the mirror. You're supposed to dress up at dances, to hook up with guys at dances, but Sarah turns down every last one. It's probably mostly because nobody asks me to dance, and she doesn't want me to be lonely.

I sighed. Sarah knows full well that I don't want her to put her life on hold for me, but she does anyway. She translates for me all the time and teaches me to read lips with my hands. She taught me full sign language, Morse code, how to read Braille, and she even bought a Braille typewriter. The girl had to be nuts to spend all her time trying to care for me, even though I keep telling her that I can do fine by myself. I suppose it would be degrading, people always thinking that I need their help, but Sarah's a great friend. We talk about stuff every other teenager talks about: guys, school, sports, music. She tries her best not to treat me like I'm helpless, though everyone else does.

I washed my face with Sarah's Clean and Clear and brushed my chin-length hair. Pulling it out of my face with a hairclip, I returned to Sarah's room. The vibration stopped. Sarah must have finished her shower. I was very glad that Sarah's room was on the top floor, I could feel the weight of her feet sag the floor ever so slightly as she walked into the room a few seconds later. She walked up to me swiftly: the grace of a dancer.

'So… what do you want to do today?' she signed into my hands.

'We should probably take Keri to the park for a good run. She's been tied up outside all night,' I signed back.

'Okay, I'll go make some breakfast, do you like Lucky Charms?'

I smiled. Sarah knew perfectly well what cereal I liked. 'No, Sarah, my favorite cereal changed overnight. Of course I like Lucky Charms.'

And so we ate and said goodbye to Sarah's parents, who were going on a business trip to California, not to mention staying an extra night for some 'them time'.

We headed outside and untied Keri. She slipped into her harness as I held it out, and we set off to the park. For someone like me, having a guide dog like Keri to help out is a necessity. When Sarah isn't around, Keri is my eyes and ears. She watches out for me and lets me know if something is going on. She's a golden retriever poodle cross, resulting in a strong build, floppy ears and shaggy, curly fur. A very affectionate, big dog. She often knocks me down when she's excited.

Sarah and I signed to each other one-handed the whole way. It seems weird to other people I guess, because it looks like we're holding hands. People in our school have sent rumors around for years because of that, but the real reason is that I need to feel the shapes she makes with her hands. How else am I supposed to understand what she says? Reading lips with my hands is a lot harder than it would seem, and I'm just learning. Besides, nobody is really ever that comfortable talking with someone's hands on their lips.

'So…" I asked Sarah. 'What about that guy Peter? Is he hot?'

'I'd classify him as a three-star cutie.'

'Three out of five isn't bad,' I said, 'you should have danced with him last night.'

'No, he's a bit of a prick.'

'He is not a prick, Sarah. Just last week you told me he backed you up when Sherry wanted to fight you.'

'And if he hadn't interfered, she would have been hospitalized for dissing your family. She would have deserved anything I dealt out and you know it.'

'She could have very well been right, Sarah. Who cares? My parents left me on the hospital's doorstep, I couldn't care less what anyone thinks of them.'

'It doesn't matter, she can't just go around talking like that and get away with it.'

'She wouldn't be getting away with it Sarah,' I signed as someone brushed past my shoulder in a hurry, 'it's called a conscience.'

'Jennifer, not everyone's conscience is as hard-core as yours. I should have beaten the crap out of her and you know it.'

'Back to Peter,' I signed, dismissing her anger, 'he wouldn't have stood up for you if he knew you didn't want him to.'

'I was done with her anyway,' Sarah signed quickly, our version of muttering.

'Come on, he likes you. You shouldn't have rejected him last night.'

'Yes I should have. He's an idiot and not really that hot. Besides, I didn't want to ditch you.'

'How many times do I have to say,' I started, but Sarah grabbed my hand to interrupt and started signing.

'Yeah, yeah, you don't want me to avoid guys just so I can hang out with you. Jennifer, you're my friend. Friends are forever, guys are whatever, okay? No matter what you say, I'm not running off to flirt and leaving you to sit around in the dark.'

I sighed inwardly. Sarah just didn't get it. I've been without sight or sound my whole life, I'm cool with it, because I've never known anything else. 'Sarah, you're the one girl in the school that could get any guy you wanted and you refuse every last one. Come on, have some fun already.'

'I'll think about it.'

She wasn't going to think about it, and I knew it.

'On the other hand, I think Barry likes you,' she signed cheerfully. 'Maybe you should go out with him.'

'That's bull, Sarah. I might be blind, I might be deaf, but I'm not stupid. Out of all the girls in the whole school, Barry wants to go out with a disabled chick? Guys don't quite work that way, especially not Barry.'

'Whatever, Jennifer. I keep telling you, you're really pretty, but if you don't believe me than so be it.'

We walked in what would have been silence had we been talking. My feet hit the concrete sidewalk in a steady cadence. Sarah let my hand drop to my side, but I reached back for it.

'So you really think he likes me?'

'Oh yeah,' and I felt Sarah's hand vibrate as she laughed. 'He stares at you all day in class.'

oOoOo

We arrived at the park, and I let Keri off her harness. She bolted to go chase a bird or something, and I laughed and started to run, following the direction she had gone. Keri must have turned, but I didn't. I crashed right into someone a fair bit taller than me.

'Sorry,' I signed, hoping that Sarah was close enough to translate. She pushed me aside a bit roughly, and all I could think was: _Uh oh._


	4. Welfare Girl

Chapter 4

Cassidy

"What the hell!" I whipped around, furious. Some chick had just plowed right into me, not even bothering to apologize, she just stood there and stared at me blankly. "Well, a sorry would be nice." She continued to just stand there. "What the hell's your problem? Get lost!" She didn't move, and her unwillingness to answer was really pissing me off. I tensed, ready to hit the girl. "What the hell are you staring at, bitch?"

A red-haired girl slid between us, gently pushing her sandy-haired friend aside. "Hi, I'm Sarah, and this is Jennifer. Take it back," she said calmly.

"Take what back? She should be apologizing, _she _ran into_ me_."

"She did apologize, retard, she's deaf, she signs."

I did a double take on the two girls. "Oh, hey, you're that freak that hangs out with the disabled-- Oh."

Danielle shook her head, like I was the biggest idiot in the world.

"Yeah, oh's right. Maybe try thinking before you accuse people of stuff, huh?"

"Hey, there are like, six hundred people in our school. How am I supposed to remember every last detail?"

"Let it go, Cassidy," Danielle warned. I ignored her.

"It doesn't matter weather you knew or not." Sarah's voice raised slightly. "You can't just freak out on everyone who bumps into you."

"It looked like she did it on purpose," I said defensively.

"Are you so egoistic that you actually think people like to run into you on purpose?"

_Yes, they do all the time,_ I thought. "C'mon Danielle. I've had enough of welfare girl and her body guard, let's g---." In mid-sentence, Sarah tackled me. "Ah! What the hell is your problem? Get off of me you psycho!"

"Take it back!" she spat.

"Take what back?" I said innocently.

"You know what I mean," she hissed. "Take it back now!"

"No."

Sarah's red hair looked very much like a flame as she flicked it to the side. Her emerald eyes glittered with determination. Her teeth were bared in a feline grin. "Do it."

I would have gladly complied, had she asked nicely, but she was a short, frail girl, and I knew that when it came to a fight I could take her. I was a gymnast, and I did Kung fu, not to mention that I was a lot bigger than she was. I kneed her in the stomach hard and she rolled off of me. "Okay, I take it back," I said kindly as soon as I was standing over her triumphantly. She refused the hand I reached down to her and stood up, giving me an angry glare. She looked like she was about to attack me again, but instead she shook her head and headed over to where Jennifer was standing.

"Come on, Danielle, let's get outta here," I said, but she stood firmly where she was. "Earth to Danielle, let's go." She still refused to move. I rolled my eyes and started to walk away.

"Cassidy, stay here," Danielle said. "Something's up."

"What? Danielle, let's go find Mark and get that iced cream. Forget these guys." My voice edged near a squeak. Danielle ignored me. "Danielle." I sighed and walked back over to her.

Sarah was watching Jennifer's hands intently. It looked as if Jennifer was telling her off, and I was pretty convinced that was the case. When Jennifer finished being angry, she signed more softly and Sarah translated. "She says, 'Sorry about Sarah, she's a little obsessive over defending those that can defend themselves perfectly fine. Come hang out with us, hopefully we can give you a better second impression.'" It was weirder than you'd think it would be for Sarah to be standing there, talking in third person resentfully.

Danielle nodded. "Okay, I know this path in the woods nearby. Follow me." I nearly laughed. What a joke! I was supposed to hand out with these idiots? But what else was I supposed to do? Stand there alone waiting for my boyfriend to get back?

Yeah, that's definitely what I should have done.

Sarah translated into Jennifer's hands. She must have done that almost her whole life, because she was damn fast.

Jennifer responded. "Lead the way," Sarah said, then whistled and a white, curly, shaggy-haired dog bounded over. "Good dog, Keri."

So we followed Danielle into the bushes, dog in tow.

"Danielle, what about Mark?" I asked, trying to find a good excuse for her to stay with me.

"We won't be long, he can wait."

"Who's Mark?" Sarah asked.

"My brother, her boyfriend," Danielle said, gesturing to me.

"Black hair, green eyes Mark?" Sarah asked, "Mark hangs out with hockey players Mark?"

"That's the one," I said, swelling with pride.

"Nice, um… what's your name again? He's cute."

"Cassidy. And this is Danielle." I thought 'that's right, I'm with the hot guy. Don't even touch him.'

"I know Danielle. I was in her socials class last year."

"Oh yeah," Danielle said, "You did that project with Kayla."

Sarah nodded. "Aren't you guys, like, best friends?"

"Sort of."

Jennifer started signing. "She says, 'What happened between you two?'" Sarah said.

"I don't know. Ever since she was made an elite member at the Sharing, we never hang out."

"She's an elite member?" Sarah asked. "Wow, small world. My aunt's an elite member. She always invites us to these cool get-togethers at the beach or whatever. Me and Jennifer go all the time."

"When?" Danielle asked, "I've never seen you at the meetings."

"Not the meetings," Sarah said with a laugh, "We just go to the parties."

"The Sharing has parties?" I said, "Maybe I should join."

"Don't," Danielle and Sarah said at the same time.

"The meetings are major snooze-fests," Danielle said. "The only reason people go to those is when they want to be an elite member, because they go on huge ski trips and get to go backstage at concerts and stuff. It's not worth it though, I went for two months and I didn't get picked. One girl was in it for two weeks and she got selected. I swear, it's only whose parents can donate the most money."

"You're just mad they picked Kayla and not you," I taunted.

Sarah laughed. "No, she's totally right. The Sharing is all about politics and money. My mom did a study. They tend to enlist people with more power, so they can promote their organization. Apparently a lot of money that should be going to the kids seems to go missing. Some kids have even had momentary lapses in sanity from it. They talk about aliens and stuff, then are totally normal after. They're good at covering up, but not everything goes unnoticed. The Sharing's elite members have a high 'no body found' casualty rate. It's a freaking cult."

_Know-it-all,_ a voice in the back of my head snarled.

"Are you trying to tell me that Kayla's in a cult?" Danielle demanded.

"Yes."

"No damn way! I refuse to accept that she's joined a cult."

"She doesn't hang out with you much, does she?"

"That doesn't mean-"

"Yes it does!"

Before Danielle had a chance to respond, something roughly the size and weight of a large rock hit me squarely on the head. My vision blackened instantly and my knees buckled.

I opened my eyes to see Danielle's ear hovering over my face. Her hand was resting above my stomach, dangerously close to a place I don't like anyone's hands. "What are you doing?" I asked.

"Oh, good," she sighed. "I was checking your breathing. Didn't want you choking on your own tongue or anything." She stood up. "Does your neck hurt?"

"No."

"Your back?"

"I don't need any stupid first aid, okay?"

She extended a hand to me. I took it gratefully and stood up, rubbing the top of my head. There was a bump the size of an egg there.

"What. The hell. Was that?" I said. Danielle pointed at a glowing blue cube on the ground. "Again, what is that?"

"I don't know," Danielle said. I turned to see Sarah and Jennifer signing to each other. Sarah mimed holding a small box. She must have been describing it.

Danielle bent down to pick up the cube.

"Don't," I said.

She looked up at me. "Why not?"

"It could be dangerous. Radioactive or something."

"Yeah, sure," Sarah said sarcastically, "and we should leave it here for some little kid to pick up."

Danielle seemingly agreed and picked up the cube, hand flat on the side and fingers curled around the edges. She dropped it instantly. "Whoa!"

"What?" Sarah and I asked simultaneously.

"It, um, shocked me. But it kind of tickled too. That was weird." She picked it up again. "It's not doing it anymore though."

Sarah took the cube from her gently. "It's not doing anything."

"Maybe I imagined it," Danielle admitted.

"Or maybe I just have to hold it like you did," Sarah said, figuring out the puzzle instantly. She pressed her right hand to the side. "There. Whoa, that's cool… …it stopped." She pressed her hand harder. "Nothing." She handed it to Jennifer, who also pressed her hand to the side.

"Let me see that," I said, taking it from her. I pressed my hand to the side and felt a warm tingle travel up my arm.

"Anyone ever teach you any manners?" Sarah asked. "You could have just asked, I would have given it to you."

"She did ask," Danielle said with a laugh. "It's called the Cassidy method. There's no kinder gesture than a middle finger."

Sarah laughed.

"Hey," I said, slightly outraged, "I can be nice, I just choose not to be with little Barbie dolls like you three."

Sarah laughed even harder. "Yes, because us three are disgustingly-proportioned blonde ditzes."

"Bite me, your official new name is Barbie because of that." Oh I was good. Sarah looked really pissed.

"Excuse me?" She said, doing the full step-forward-hands-on-hips pose. But we didn't get a chance to finish, because at that moment, a scream echoed through the bush.

((AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!))


	5. A Ghost?

Chapter 5 

Sarah

The blood-curdling scream came from the depths of the forest. Jennifer's hand shot to my shoulder for balance, and I felt the same wave of distant pain overwhelm me. I held my ground as Danielle collapsed to the ground in a wave of emotion that also came from the unknown source. Something was in trouble, desperate for help. I had to do something, and Jennifer seemed to come to the same conclusion. Cassidy dropped the blue cube in awe.

"It's a ghost," she said, voice completely serious.

I ignored her and sprinted into the bushes, Jennifer closely in tow, not even needing a guide to follow the waves of pain and desperation. Keri bounded in front of me, and she must have felt the same need to help. There was rustling in the bushes behind us and I faintly heard Cassidy's voice attempting to warn me.

"We shouldn't be doing this, something bad's going to happen!"

"Shut up Cassidy," I said, my voice lost in the wind behind me as I ran. She was following me anyway. If she thought this was such a bad idea, she wouldn't be coming. Sure, this was weird, but the emotion was so overwhelming that I couldn't help but keep going.

I dodged a tree and leapt over a small bush of devil's club, Keri was still ahead, us three girls behind. Slowly, the scene of destruction became visible. A crash-landing site most likely. There was something that looked vaguely like a small plane but the wings were stubby and instead of a normal plane's tail, there was an upwards curving stinger. It was nose down, and many trees were bent or broken in result. There was an open oval door on the side of the craft. I slowed to a walking pace and allowed the others to catch up with me.

"Still think it's a ghost, Cassidy?" I said.

"It could be a new government craft," Danielle said, "A test. We should get out of here before someone catches us."

"It's not our fault we found it," Cassidy said. "If we reported it, they might even pay us for saving them time searching."

Danielle laughed, "The government would not want a bunch of teenagers running around gabbing about an experimental aircraft. No. Definitely not. Ever hear about Roswell? Only one person who was there is still alive, and he barely knows anything about it."

"Roswell's old, Danielle. Those people died of old age," Cassidy pointed out. "Besides, there's no such thing as aliens."

"But they never spoke to the cameras. They were pressured both to tell and keep the secret their whole lives. Is that what you want? And who said anything about aliens? _Experimental Craft._"

We were now close enough to see the whole aircraft. The tip of its tail was glowing an unnatural blue. It was the same blue as the cube.

((Help me,)) a voice said, and it felt almost as if it had whispered in my ear. My brain heard it, but my ears didn't. Jennifer grabbed my shoulder again, though there was no wave of pain.

'Did you hear that?' I signed to her hands.

'Hear? That's sound? It wants help.'

'It's not really sound. It's in my head.'

'Mine too.'

I spoke out loud and translated for the benefit of Cassidy and Danielle. Danielle stopped walking.

"We shouldn't go any closer, those trees are unstable."

"Something needs my help," I said, unsure of my own bravery, "I'm going to help it."

"We should call the ambulance or something," Cassidy said shakily, "If someone's hurt."

"I've got a cell phone," I said, pulling it out of my pocket for everyone to see. "I'll call 911 if we need it."

Slowly, we proceeded towards the source of the pain. I could hear labored breathing as we came closer. ((Who is there? Friend or foe? Andalite or yeerk?))

"I don't know what those are, but we wish you no harm if you wish us none," Danielle said, still searching through the bushes for the source. "Where are you?"

((Here.)) I heard a snapping noise to the right and pulled apart the brush to reveal the source of the sound.

Danielle gasped, Cassidy turned around to throw up, and I began signing to Jennifer as fast as I could, trying to think of the words to describe the scene before us.

Lying on the ground was what very well could have been a centaur. It had an equine body, covered in tan and blue fur, but its back legs were disfigured, it must have landed on them. A slender, pearl-white bone protruded from one of them, leaking blue blood across the ground, matting its sleek fur. It had a tail much like the ship's, curved like a scorpion's with a blade on the end. At the place where its blade and skin met, there was more of that blue blood. The blade was half ripped off. Its torso was that of a slender man's, but his skin was somewhat melted, joining his arms to his chest with ribbons of disgustingly disfigured fur and skin. His face looked the same way, skin melted all across where his mouth should have been and partially over his eyes and three-slitted nose. He had pointed ears and what seemed like two antennae or horns that moved like tails, bending or twisting in any direction they wished. On top of one was an eye that was also bleeding, but the other was chopped off. It was our first glance at an andalite, and not a pretty one.

"Sarah, call an ambulance," Cassidy said.

"What are you, insane?" Danielle demanded. "People get one glance at this guy and he'll be in a laboratory for life."

"At least he'll be alive," Cassidy said.

"He should decide," I said, looking at the creature before me. "Do you want us to get someone who may be able to help and risk your freedom?"

((No. You must be yeerks! I will never be voluntary, you sick vermin!)) He raised his tail, but the blade hung from it pitifully, threatening to tear off, should he try to sting us.

"We only want to help," Danielle said, "we don't want you to die."

((Of course you don't,)) the creature snapped, ((You want to make me your host. Tell me yeerk, what is your rank? Are you a Visser? Sub-Visser? Or maybe you're just a simple underling. You will never take me!))

"I don't understand what you're talking about," Danielle said with frustration, "Please, what, or who are you?"

The creature laughed coldly. ((I believe I asked you that question first. Very well, I am Janraf-Sirinial-Nalin, warrior in the andalite fleet, cousin to the great Prince Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul. That's right yeerk, I am cousin to the greatest yeerk-slayer in the galaxy.))

"What is a yeerk?" I asked, "And why do you keep calling us that?"

((You are not yeerks? Are you true earthers? If so, I advise you to run, and run fast. The yeerks are coming, warn your people, and do not let them catch you. Go!))

"But you have to live!" Danielle yelled, tears in her eyes. The creature masked his waves of pain and terror now, slowly gaining control of himself. He seemed to be a lot braver now.

((I will die here,)) he said solemnly. ((I regret losing control and calling you to me. The yeerks are coming. They are parasites, they live inside the brains of creatures and read their memories to act like them. You can never know who is infested and who is not unless you starve the yeerks for three days. Your people are being enslaved, you have to warn them. Go now.)) He lifted his arm weakly and waved us away, resulting in the stringy masses stretching to their limits.

"He's right," Cassidy said, pointing to the sky. I followed her gaze and saw what looked like two huge metal beetles descending from the sky. Cruelty and evil pulsed from each of them in waves, filling me with dread.

'Come with me Jennifer,' I signed, pulling her back the way we came. Cassidy, Keri and Danielle followed and we crouched in the bushes about fifty feet from the ship and the alien. I held Keri's collar, though I knew she wasn't going anywhere.

"We should leave," Cassidy said, "We should really leave."

"I have to know what's going on," I said. "You can leave if you want."

At that moment, five brown creatures piled out of the two ships. Each one carried what looked suspiciously like a gun. Pointing the guns to the dying alien, they surrounded it with swift grace. There were green blades that raked forward on their arms, legs, head and down their backs. They had long necks and beaks and legs that looked much like a raptor's. I shrank back into the bushes. Those things could kill me with a swipe of their arm. I relayed descriptions to Jennifer, not sure if I was actually saying anything or just moving my hands to comfort myself. I was pretty much babbling if you translate it. The blue alien tried to struggle to its feet, its back legs collapsing to make it look much like a sitting dog. A mangled, skin-melted, blue furred, messed up dog at that.

((I will never surrender to the yeerk empire,)) Janraf said in disgust. ((I will die first.))

"Andalite," a voice said from the beetle-like ships. A human voice. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am sub-visser nineteen. A low rank, I agree, but I am visser one's earth supervisor. I report to her and no one else on the situation of her favorite planet. Perhaps you would like me to give her a message."

((Every one of your foul species can rot in the deepest craters of _Nachiran_,)) Janraf spat.

"Now, now," the voice said, revealing itself by stepping out of an oval door in the beetle-ship. It was a woman that looked like she was in her thirties, she had light brown, shoulder-length hair, half of it pinned out of her face. She wore jeans and a turtleneck sweater, an unnaturally cruel smile was spread across her cheery face.

"Paula?" Danielle whispered.

"Is that a way to speak to someone you will share a brain with? The disrespect of some youths these days."

((I am not a youth.))

"I'm sorry, andalite. I haven't allowed you to introduce yourself properly. Where are my manners?" her voice dripped with sarcasm. "Your name is?"

((I am Janraf-Sirinial-Nalin, warrior in the andalite fleet, cousin to the great Prince Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul, the most respected andalite in the galaxy.))

"Excuse me, oh great cousin to a has-been, but I regret to inform you that your high and mighty cousin is dead," the woman said solemnly, the cruel smirk tugging at the corners of her mouth. She laughed, "Actually, I am quite pleased to inform you of that. So you understand that your meaningless title means even less now."

((No!)) Janraf shouted, ((Elfangor is not dead!))

"Oh, yes he is. Visser Three himself ate your cousin just last night. He was one of the first to crash." She walked through the trees calmly, hands behind her back. Slowly, she came to a halt directly in front of Janraf's half-standing body. He struggled to keep himself up. "A mess you are, warrior. Did they warn you how much pain this would cause you? Your cousin could handle it, that is before Visser Three devoured his beaten body, but you? You are far too young and weak."

((I am twice the andalite Elfangor was!)) Janraf yelled angrily. ((He is dead and I am alive.))

"And you will continue to live," the woman said. "Won't you, my host?"

((Never!)) His thought echoed in my head. ((I am a servant of my people!)) he said defiantly.

"You wouldn't dare," the woman hissed.

((I am a servant of my prince!)) his tail snapped forward with whip-like speed, aiming for the woman's neck, but short of that, the blade ripped off its place and fell harmlessly into the dirt.

"You can't do it now, stupid creature."

((I am the servant of honor.)) The creature's thought-spoken voice cracked with pain. ((My life is not my own, when the people have need of it.)) The glowing tail of Janraf's ship glowed brighter, and a beam of blue light shot out, heading directly to the andalite's dying body.

"NO!" The woman screamed, and one of the brown raptors leapt into the beam, disappearing instantly. He hadn't been beamed up to the mother ship. I was sure.

Danielle started to scream, but I clapped a hand over her mouth. Even when she stopped, I held it there, just in case.

"Destroy the ship!" The woman screamed. Four beams of bright red light shot from the weapons of the raptors, immediately removing any trace that the ship was ever there. Danielle tried to scream again.

I relayed everything to Jennifer, down to the last detail. The only thing I didn't say was what the alien said, because Jennifer heard it in her head.

((Alessian!)) I didn't understand what that meant. ((No. Nonononono…)) the creature said in disbelief. The woman smiled and grabbed the back of his neck and head, pulling him towards her as if she was about to kiss him. Instead, she put her ear to his.

One of the raptor-creatures tried to speak to her. It could have been in a different language, but I think even if it had tried to speak English, I wouldn't have understood.

"I know, you idiot," the woman hissed. "It's worth the pain." Janraf struggled and tried to pull away. He was weak though, and his arms were almost pinned to his side by the melted skin.

((NOOOOOOOOOOO!)) the alien yelled, and I felt as if my brain was about to burst with pain and fear.

"Get out of there, you filthy slug!" the woman screamed, pulling away and clawing at the alien's ear. I caught a glimpse of a slug slithering through it. Cassidy threw up again.

((You're mine now, precious Jaraf,)) Janraf said, confusing me. Now the evil feeling was coming from Janraf himself. ((You didn't morph because you're unable?!)) he shrieked ((What use is an andalite with a detached tail-blade, a missing stalk eye and no ability to morph? I went through the pain of entering your body only to discover that we'll have to do surgery? Take me to the bug ship, hork-bajir.)) The raptor aliens with the blades lifted up Janraf gingerly, pulling the screaming woman in tow. They entered the metal bugs and took off swiftly. All five of us finally drew breath.

"We should tell someone," Cassidy said after a long silence. "There are actually aliens invading."

"People probably already know," I said. "There must have been announcements that an invasion was coming."

"Nobody knows," Danielle said.

"How do you know that?" Cassidy asked.

"Because we would have heard about it already. Nobody knows about the invasion because nobody can tell the difference. Didn't you hear him? He said you can't tell who's infested."

"But we have to tell people," Cassidy insisted.

"What are you, stupid?" I snapped. "Nobody's going to believe a couple of teenagers. And if they really are all over the place, they might just catch us and kill us, and then we're no help to anyone."

'So what do we do?' Jennifer asked.

"We get out of here before they come back," Danielle said. As if on cue, a telepathic screech cut through the conversation.

((HUMANS! The andalite spoke to humans! This might ruin everything! Find them!))

We looked at each other. "That slug must have read his mind!" Danielle hissed.

"Run," I suggested.

Apparently we all thought that was a good suggestion, because we ran back the way we had come as if our lives depended on it, which they probably did.

But only I stole a glance backwards, and I thought I saw four black-haired girls where we had been standing. But when I stopped and looked again, they had disappeared into the bushes.

"Guys!" I called, but when I remembered that I was running for my life, I gave up and sprinted to catch up with Jennifer, who was holding Keri's collar and running as fast as she could without running into anything.

**A/N: Next chapter is Jennifer's POV. Another long chapter, then there'll be a short one with Ellimist and Crayak. Exciting stuff's coming!**


	6. Woof woof

Chapter 6

Jennifer

I came back to the hospital like a good little girl. I ate my dinner, I fell asleep in the lumpy bed like I was supposed to. Not a mention of what happened. The staff left me in peace.

I couldn't help but wonder if we had been spotted by those aliens. If they knew where we were, who we were or who our families were. I was worried about the others, and I wondered if the yeerks would even want me. Maybe they would lock me up in a prison somewhere because I was unfit to be a "host." Or maybe they would just kill me so I could never tell anyone about what I had seen.

Despite my paranoia of being assassinated in my sleep, I slept. And I had the dream again, the dream where he came to me.

CHILD, it said to me, or more, felt to me. It was like, I could feel the signs, but even if I didn't, I would know what it wanted to tell me.

_Who are you?_ I asked again.

Once again, it ignored my question. YOU HAVE JUST GAINED AN AMAZING POWER AND YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW IT. It was almost as if it was laughing at the idea.

_What are you? _I asked, trying a different angle. _What power?_

And finally, after years of asking, it gave me an answer. YOU MAY CALL ME ELLIMIST. The word was spelled out, so I could understand how to write it.

_Ellimist,_ I mused. _It's a beautiful name._

There was a great vibrating feeling, as if Ellimist were laughing. HUMANS SEEM TO LIKE EVERYTHING TO HAVE A NAME, DON'T THEY? It was a rhetorical question. BUT YOU MUST LISTEN CLOSELY, BECAUSE I CANNOT REPEAT WHAT I'M ABOUT TO TELL YOU.

It was my turn to laugh. _Listen._

YOU HAVE STUMBLED UPON A POWER THAT THE ANDALITES HOLD DEAR. IT IS CALLED THE MORPHING TECHNOLOGY, AND IT IS CONTAINED IN THAT SMALL CUBE. IF YOU CONCENTRATE ON AN ANIMAL WHILE TOUCHING IT, YOU WILL ABSORB ITS DNA. YOU CAN THEN USE THAT DNA TO CHANGE INTO THE ANIMAL AT ANY TIME. ACQUIRE AS MANY AS YOU NEED. NEVER STAY FOR MORE THAN TWO HOURS, OR YOU'LL HAVE TO STAY FOREVER. DO YOU UNDERSTAND?

_No,_ I told him simply.

THEY ALL HAVE THE POWER TOO. By they, he meant Cassidy, Sarah and Danielle. YOU CAN USE ANY ANIMAL. BE BRAVE, BE CLEVER.

_What about the yeerks?_

I CAN'T SAY ANYTHING MORE. THAT IS FOR YOU TO DISCOVER.

I woke up quite suddenly, disappointed that I hadn't learned more. Within all reason, I should have taken the dream to be a figment of my imagination, but the voice had come to me before, and I had come to take it very seriously.

I stood up from my bed and half-closed the door so that only a small amount of air from the surrounding hospital drifted in and out of the room, then clapped my hands. Keri's head came to my hand at once, and I concentrated. Maybe it was silly, okay, maybe it was outright insane, but after everything that had happened it didn't seem so bad.

A strange feeling came over me. It was hard to describe. It was like I felt the blood in my veins vividly as it traveled up my arm. Keri's muscles relaxed, and I felt very calm. I waited, thinking of Keri, her warm, cozy fur, her long tail, her snout, her teeth and anything else that I could possibly think of about Keri. My hand began to itch and I broke my concentration. On my hands, there was more hair than there should have been. Thick, soft fur: the same fur as Keri's. I felt my face. My nose was cold and wet and the fur was everywhere. My hair on my head was shorter than it should have been. It was a dream. Had to be. A very strange dream. I slapped myself in the face and felt that small pads had formed on my hand. What was going on?

But somewhere, deep down, I knew that I had to keep going. I had to finish the change. So once more, I concentrated on Keri. I felt my ears get big and flop over, I felt my nose protrude from my face, I felt my spine suddenly extend into a long, swooshing tail. Suddenly:

RRRUFF! RRRUFF!

Sound.

RRRUFF!

I was astonished, but I kept the change going. _You can't turn back now. It's probably just a dream._

Sound was exactly like Sarah had described it, but more wonderful than I had imagined. I hoped it wasn't a dream.

But in that moment, the entire world as I knew it was turned upside down.

Sight.

Keri was in front of me, her nose nearly touching mine. I could see my snout in front of me. I saw the way that her shaggy fur curled. I noticed her eyes, like two beads. I noted that the floor was smooth and the bed was soft. I could know where walls were without having to touch them. I mean, I knew of sight from what Sarah described. Sight was from my eyes, sound from my ears. Sight was light being reflected off of objects into my eyes, where my lens focused the information onto the retina and it became sparks of energy, traveling through my brain and to the back, where the picture was made sense of. I understood everything she had told me now, but this was so different than I had expected. I turned to face the window. There was a crescent moon in the sky, and small bright dots were barely visible amongst the light of the brightly lit street. Stars meant that it was still night-time. I had to tell Sarah. I could see, I could hear! Save that, I was a _dog!_ I was so happy that I felt like racing around the entire hospital and howling like crazy. However, I had something much better in mind.

I turned and swished my tail in Keri's face. By instinct, I knew she would take it as a goodbye. I stuck my nose in the crack of the almost-closed door and pushed at it until the gap became bigger. This couldn't be a dream. There was no way that I could dream with senses that I'd never had. It had to be real. I prayed to Ellimist that it was real as I dashed down the hallways towards the exits. Surprisingly, nobody had seen me. I pressed the wheelchair access button. _Yes!_ The doors weren't locked.

I felt the texture of the ground under my paws and hoped that I could judge distance the same way I had as a human. I knew exactly how many paces it took and where to go to get to Sarah's house, but as a dog, the distance would be different. I'd have to rely on my nose and sense of touch to get me there, but my other senses were so hard to ignore. I heard crickets chirping, at least, I thought they were crickets. I saw the moon and the stars. I saw trees and telephone poles and houses. All of this was taken in easily. I didn't even have to touch or smell anything to know it was there, it just _was._

I dashed across the street to the grass and turned, feeling the familiar dips and bumps of the ground. I turned left down a road, then right, and right again. Left, straight, right, left, cross a bridge, then left down the long road that led to Sarah's house. The road became bumpy with gravel, but was suddenly smoother when I came to her driveway. I smelled her cat in the yard, and I knew that there was a dog that was frequent to visit there. I smelled my scent too, it was all over the place. The dog nose was far more acute than my own, but I quickly redirected my thoughts. The mission is to see Sarah, not sniff out every doggie visitor to her yard.

RRRUFF! RRRUFF! I barked, in hopes that Sarah would hear. No answer. I scratched at her door and barked some more. Still nothing.

_SARAH, _I thought angrily, _get your butt down here and open the door for me!_

RRRUFF! I barked as loud as I could and started howling.

Sarah appeared at the door a few moments later. Her hair was tied back into a low bun messily and she was rubbing her eyes. She wore a long, fluffy robe over pajamas with rubber ducks on them. I have to admit, the images on the pajamas were a pretty crude impression of rubber ducks. "Is someone there?" she asked, then noticed me, still howling my head off. "Keri!" she said angrily, "Bad dog! Why are you here? Stop howling or you'll wake up the whole neighborhood." She signed when she spoke, because Keri only understood sign language. It took me several minutes to decipher what she was saying, because sight and feeling were so similar, yet so different.

I trotted up to Sarah. _It's me,_ I thought, _How am I supposed to tell you it's me if I'm a dog?_

Sarah brought her hand up to her ear, trying to clean it out with her pinky finger. "What? Is someone there?"

She got no answer, except me walking past her into her house. It was amazing, finally being able to see the things that I'd only felt for so long. Like the steps, and the railing. The air smelled familiar and the floor was still smooth and wooden, but everything was _different._

Sarah closed the door. "Keri, bad dog! You shouldn't be here! Where's Jennifer?"

_Hey!_ I wasn't a bad dog! It hurt me deeply that she would even suggest such a thing. I pushed my head into her hand gently, hoping that she would pet me. Wait a second! Why did I want her to pet me? I wasn't here to be petted! But man, it felt really good. _Snap out of it, Jennifer!_

_How can I tell you it's me, Sarah? I can see now, I can hear! I want to tell you!_

"Huh?" she said, turning to find the source of the inaudible sound.

_Duh, _I thought, _I can just become human again. I hope._

I concentrated on human again. _Be human, become a person again, with hair and hands and feet. Stand upright._ And surely enough, I felt the changes start to happen. Sarah jumped back. "What the hell?"

I tried to sign, but my hands were clumsy still. I reached out a still half-dog arm to reassure her, but she stepped back from it. "This is a really weird dream," she said, but of course, I didn't understand her because she didn't sign it. Finally, I was myself again. The sound had stopped, but I could see, and how much better my sight was now than as a dog! It was as if my smell and sight had reversed. I couldn't smell as well, but now I could see things amazingly well. The edges were clear and defined. I saw what Sarah had meant about color, and I signed as fast as I could.

'Sarah, it's okay, it's me.'

'Now I know I'm dreaming,' she signed into my hands

'Pinch yourself. It's not a dream.'

She did, and winced in pain. 'Then what the hell was that? What happened?'

'_He _came to me again.'

'Him? Crap, not the master of bad news again.'

'He'scalled_ Ellimist._'

'And he made you… able to do that?'

'He said that the blue box we found did. He said never stay for more than two hours. But it did more than that, Sarah. I can _see._'

She stepped back, slowly raking her pointer finger across her other hand in a clockwise semi-circle. 'What?'

'I can_ see_ Sarah. And when I was a dog, I could hear too. I understand what you meant now. It all makes sense. How could I have not imagined it before?'

Sarah just gaped at me.

'I can learn to do things by myself now! I'll be able to walk the streets normally and I will know what the teachers are saying. I can learn to read lips by sight, I can even learn to speak! It's a miracle!'

Sarah smiled weakly. 'That's great, Jennifer!' She wasn't a good enough actress to fool me though. She was upset at the realization that I wouldn't need her any more. I should have been more careful about the words I chose.

Feeling that it was my responsibility to cheer her up, I signed, 'You touched the box too, Sarah. You can do it too! Quick, get your cat!'

Sarah nodded. Excitement bubbling up in her, she dashed off to find her cat, Pickles. When she returned, she had several gashes in her arm and Pickles was dangling from her hands at a safe distance from her body.

'Concentrate on the cat,' I instructed. She closed her eyes, something I noted. It was probably easier to concentrate without sight to distract you. After a while the cat relaxed completely and Sarah opened her eyes. She put the cat down. 'I don't feel any different.' Pickles darted away.

'Now just imagine yourself becoming the cat,' I signed.

'This is so ridiculous,' Sarah said, closing her eyes again. It was the most amazing thing I'd ever seen. (Well, maybe it wasn't that amazing, considering I hadn't seen much.) Sarah began to shrink ever so slightly at first, but she went faster once it got started. Her skin became patterned with stripes and hair sprouted all over her body. Her hair elastic fell to the floor as her hair receded into her head and her ears became pointed and fuzzy.

((Whoa.)) It was a voice again, in my head. It was in English, but I felt the meaning behind her words. It was Sarah's voice. Needless to say, I jumped.

'What did you say?' I signed. Sarah was fully cat. It seemed to have taken her a lot longer than I did, and her robe and pajamas were still draped over her. She crawled out gently.

((I can't say anything, I'm a cat,)) her voice came. ((Oh man, three words you thought you'd never say truthfully.))

'Oh my god! You can talk like an andalite! I hear your thoughts!'

There was a pause. ((Did you hear that?)) she asked.

'"I'm a cat," or "did you hear that?"' I asked, a little more than confused.

((Neither, I was just thinking that maybe this is all a dream. The andalite, you, this changing thing. But if you didn't hear that, it means you can't hear all my thoughts.))

'Only when you send them at me.'

The cat nodded. It was an extremely un-catlike thing to do. She stretched and leapt onto a small table next to me, knocking over a jar of pencils and scattering papers onto the floor. ((This feels great! I feel so agile!)) She gracefully dropped from the table and examined the papers. They didn't keep her interest long however, and she set out up the stairs. I followed. We went to her room, and I noticed the color and beauty of it. Never before had I noticed the posters on the wall that portrayed assortments of creatures. One had scaly skin the color of my top, and it sat like a dog, staring at rolling hills with mixtures of color painted on the background. The spines that ran down its back glowed with light from the other colors. I walked over and touched it gently, attentive to the detail that went into it. It was lovely, how had I gone my whole life unable to appreciate its beauty?

Sarah leapt up on the dresser. ((You can turn on the lights you know,)) she said, nodding towards the switch on the wall. I'd used it before, but only when Sarah was around. I'd never expected to need it, and now I did. I flipped the switch and suddenly, the entire room brightened. Everything was so much more vivid, like coming from dog to human all over again. It was so bright that it hurt my eyes and I had to blink repeatedly until I was used to the light.

The poster I had been examining was suddenly even more beautiful. I ran my fingers along the lines of light that spread over the hills. 'Sarah, what is this?' I asked when I noticed her eyes examining me.

((It's a dragon staring at a sunset,)) she said ponderously. ((I always wanted to show you a sunset.))

I examined the dragon. 'What is this color?' I asked.

((The dragon is a dark blue.))

I stared for a few more moments, then tore my eyes from the poster, turning to see the other posters in the room. I froze when my eyes caught a glimpse of ivory teeth bared in a feline grin. A black panther was frozen in a dangerous snarl, ready to pounce at me. I stumbled backwards and fell on my butt. The panther didn't move, but I kept my eyes fixed on its menacing teeth.

((Jennifer, it's just a poster,)) Sarah said, leaping into my lap. I reached up a hand to pet her automatically, then stopped when I remembered myself. ((No, don't stop petting! It feels really nice.))

I petted her a bit longer, examining the panther. The way that the light reflected off its fur, and the way that its eyes looked at me, I would have sworn it was real. It looked like a bigger, meaner version of Pickles.

'Sarah, you should probably change back soon. Remember: no more than two hours.'

She nodded. ((I guess I should. It's just so fun! Wait, I want to look in the mirror while I do this.))

The mirror! I stood up quickly, knocking Sarah off my lap and rushed to where the mirror was. I knew my way by feel. I closed my eyes and found the smooth surface under my fingers. _This is it,_ I told myself. _The moment I've always wished for._ I savored the feeling and braced myself for what I was about to find. Positioning myself perfectly in front of the mirror, I opened my eyes and all the air escaped my lungs. I gasped for air but I none seemed to come. My lungs began to burn and my head felt cloudy and light. _I'm going to pass out,_ I thought. I'd never passed out before. I closed my eyes and stepped back to stabilize myself. After a moment, my head cleared and I opened my eyes again.

Another girl stood before me. She was thin, wearing a T-shirt and fairly baggy pajama pants. Her hair was cropped into a sort of bob cut. I stared down at what I was wearing. It was identical to the other girl's. I had the same haircut. I raised my left hand and she raised her right. _A mirror effect._ I could finally see what it really meant.

A cat leapt onto the dresser beside me. ((I totally forgot. You've never seen a mirror before.))

'There are a lot of things I've never seen,' I signed absently.

((I agree. Tonight I'll teach you whatever you don't know about sight, okay? Colors and whatnot. Then tomorrow I'll take you to see some stuff.))

I nodded eagerly, my eyes fixed on Sarah. That sounded like a great idea, so long as I was right and I wasn't dreaming. I examined myself in the mirror once more and stepped aside. 'You wanted to look in the mirror?' The cat nodded again.

The first change was her tail. SHLOOP! It receded into her like spaghetti in someone's mouth. Her face started to change, a human nose emerging from the small wet one, human ears forming from their pointed counterparts. Her eyes grew and changed color. I backed away from the strange sight. It had felt strange when I did it, but it even _looked_ strange when Sarah did. When she finished, she was wearing nothing but a bra and underwear. Her pale face gained a lot of color and she motioned for me to turn around. I got the hint and turned, though I didn't see what the big deal was. It wasn't much different from wearing a bikini. A moment later, she put her hand on my shoulder and I turned around to find her fully dressed.

'Something occurred to me.'

'What?' I asked.

'You could understand me when I spoke to you telepathically, but how would you understand English? You've never heard it before.'

I snorted at her use of the word 'telepathically'. That stuff was only in the movies, wasn't it? 'Yeah, but it was like the way that the alien spoke. It wasn't a language that I understood, but there were feelings and meanings behind the words.'

Sarah nodded. 'I know what you mean. The alien definitely wasn't speaking English.'

I smiled, scanning the room again with my newfound sense. I could suddenly know everything just by looking; the greatest moment of my life.

'Well, let's get started then,' Sarah signed, her lips moving soundlessly.


	7. How Dare You?

Key: **CRAYAK SPEAKING**

ELLEMIST SPEAKING

There's no pov for this chapter. I find it easier to use the third person for Crayak and Ellemist 

Chapter 7

The Crayak smiled at the threads of time. He watched the fabric of reality weave itself, revealing the destroyed andalite being reconstructed by the yeerks. Maybe this would be enough to win the game. Maybe, somehow this andalite's body could be used to spread the plague of yeerks. A thought occurred to him, and he quickly searched the strands of time for the aftermath of what he had done, praying that it hadn't altered anything else. As he did, he discovered something that had been hidden to him before.

He roared at his own ignorance, his voice echoing through the threads like strings on a harp.

**ELLIMIST!**

YES, CRAYAK? Came the smooth, ever-so innocent reply.

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE? I THOUGHT THAT YOU AGREED NOT TO TAMPER WITH MY EXPERIMENT!

I DIDN'T, he said simply

**REALLY? THEN WHAT IS THIS? **He grasped a collection of strands and thrust them at the Ellimist's mockingly innocent voice.

AH YES, YOU SEEM TO HAVE MADE A MISTAKE BY SAVING THAT ANDALITE BODY.

**YOU HAVE MADE THE MISTAKE OF BREAKING OUR AGREEMENT. YOU WERE NOT TO TAMPER WITH MY DOINGS! SUDDENLY, THESE **_**GIRLS**_** HAVE THE ANDALITE TECHNOLOGY AND YOU ACT AS IF YOU DON'T HAVE ANYTHING TO DO ABOUT IT! YOUR FINGERPRINTS ARE ALL OVER THIS! **Crayak snarled.

YOU SEEM TO BE MISTAKEN. MY 'FINGERPRINTS' AS YOU REFER TO THEM, ARE IN FACT ONLY ON THREE INDIVIDUALS. ONE OF THEM IS CONNECTED TO THE PEMALITES, SO THAT DOESN'T COUNT, AND THE OTHER TWO SIMPLY HAD AN IMPULSE TO MEET. I BELIEVE THAT MY 'FINGERPRINTS' HAVE LITTLE RELATION TO THE INCIDENT THAT OCCURRED.

Crayak seethed with hatred for the being called Ellimist. It seemed that no matter what he did, Ellimist seemed to come out on top. He examined the threads closer, searching for a fault in Ellimist's work. When he found it, he roared again in outrage.

YOU IDIOT! YOU DISGUSTING, HORRIBLE CREATURE! HOW DID YOU MANAGE TO BEND THE RULES AS SUCH!? HOW DID YOU LET THIS ESCAPE MY VIGILANCE?

WHATEVER DO YOU MEAN?

Crayak roared again. THE GIRL! THE BLOODY GIRL! YOU _CREATED_ A HUMAN AND NEVER TOLD ME? YOU ARE DESPICABLE!

OH YES, IT SEEMS YOU HAVE FINALLY DISCOVERED HER. I WONDERED HOW LONG IT WOULD TAKE YOU.

I DEMAND HER IMMEDIATE REMOVAL FROM THE GAME OR YOU FOREFIT!

NOW CRAYAK, NEITHER OF US CAN SIMPLY KILL OF ANY HUMAN! YOU KNOW THAT.

YOU CREATED ONE, AND THAT IS ALSO AGAINST THE RULES! YOU WILL GIVE ME MY CHANCE TO KILL HER EVENTUALLY, I DEMAND IT!

YES CRAYAK, I WILL GIVE YOU THAT CHANCE.

Toomin smiled to himself. He had chosen well.


	8. Closet Asassin

Chapter 8

Danielle

Needless to say, when I awoke the next morning, I had already convinced myself that it was a dream. But it was still a little bit strange that it was already eleven o'clock. Usually I set my alarm for much earlier, more like seven or eight o-clock. Had I turned it off.

"Morning." Mark's voice rang into my room.

"Morning Mark," I replied. "Why didn't you wake me up for chores?"

"No worries," he said. "I covered them for you."

Now, Mark and I are pretty close, but we never do things like 'covering chores.' "Mmhmm," I said. "And why?"

"No reason," he said. "You looked like you needed sleep. Can't a brother just do something nice for her sister every once in a while?"

"And when do you need _me_ to cover _your_ chores?" I asked, even more suspicious.

"Don't you worry about that," he said with a smile so sweet it almost gave me cavities. "I'll find a time." And with that, he disappeared from my doorway.

"Thought so!" I called after him. Geez, turning off my alarm clock just so that I'd owe him one! What a mooch.

BRIIING!

The phone rang, making me jump out of my covers in surprise. Unfortunately, the downstairs phone was so old and unnecessarily loud that it scared the living crap out of everyone in a mile's radius.

"It'll be for you!" Mark called at the short pause between rings.

BRIIING!

My ears felt like they were going to start bleeding, so I jumped to my feet and ran to the phone, praying that it wouldn't ring before I picked up, while I was an inch away from it. Thankfully, I made it in time.

"Allo?" I asked.

"Danielle? Finally! We've been calling for two hours!"

"Sarah?"

"Yeah! Mark kept answering and hanging up. He said you were sleeping, but you know, we were worried. Jennifer and I need to talk to you, it's really important."

"You've got to be joking!" I groaned. "I thought I was dreaming!"

"Nope. But we kinda wanna talk to you in person. Any chance of that?"

"Yeah, you can come over to my place," I said.

"Horse Palace, right?" Don't ask me how she knew that.

"Yeah."

"Give us ten minutes. Call Cassidy. She has to come."

"Ten minutes?!" I asked incredulously, but she had already hung up. "Whatever happened to saying 'bye?'" I muttered.

"Hey Danielle!" Mark called, poking his head into the stairwell. "I'm going to Jackson's house, okay? I'll see you tonight."

"Okay!" I called back. "See you later!"

I called Cassidy's number for the second day in a row.

"Hello?" a groggy voice came.

"Hello, is Cassidy there?" I asked.

"Yes she is. CASSANDRA!"

I held back the urge to snicker. If anyone at school had called her Cassandra, she probably would have decked them hard.

"Here she is," Cassidy's mother said, handing off the phone.

"Hey Cassidy," I said.

"Damnit!" she replied, as expected.

"Yeah, that's how I feel about it too," I said. "Sarah and Danielle are coming over."

"And you want me to come? Forget it. You can tell me whatever you need to say right now."

I considered doing just that, but what if the phone wasn't safe? What if there were tapped lines all over the city? What if these aliens were listening to us right now? "I'd love to," I said, trying to be smooth, "but some things you just have to say in person, y'know?"

Cassidy sighed. "Twenty minutes," and hung up.

I walked back into my room and got dressed. Next, I lifted the blanket off of Magic's cage and opened it so he could roam the room while I brushed my hair. This was ridiculous. I hadn't even had breakfast yet and they were going to be at my house soon.

Magic found what I had missed.

"Preeeeeetty box, pretty box!" he squawked, and I turned to see what he had discovered.

There, on my bedside table, was the same cube that we had found the day before. Only I didn't remember bringing it home. I froze. My heart started beating faster and the muscles in my hand went limp, causing my hairbrush to drop to the floor.

Magic pecked at the cube a few times, pulled back, shook his head and tried again. He was completely oblivious to what that cube meant. This was it. They had to know I was one of the people in the woods. They knew it was me and they were playing with me. That had to be it. There was no other explanation for why the cube was here.

Any minute now, someone was going to burst out of my closet or from under my bed and kill me. It wouldn't even be painful, just a smooth assassination attempt. I allowed myself to remain there, frozen for a few more seconds before I reached for the best weapon I could find: a pocketknife. It wasn't quite as pitiful as a swiss army blade, but it was still only two inches long. Slowly, I crept towards the closet, knowing that there would be someone inside, feeling the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I knew what would happen; I had watched my fair share of horror movies. I would open the closet, and one of two things would occur. One, he would be there, or two, he would be waiting behind me instead. Either way, as I tried to beat him off with my fists, or get him with the knife, (which I wasn't sure if I could muster up the courage to actually put it through human flesh,) he would calmly avoid it and shoot me. Or he too would have a knife, and stab me, or slit my throat. Or he might have an axe, or even just a baseball bat. Then I realized that the longer I thought about it, the more disgusting the possibilites got.

So instead of elaborating, I opened the door in one quick motion. No one was there. I whipped around, expecting the worst, but there was no one there. My heart was pounding in my chest and my hands were sweating, making my grip on the knife unreliable. There was complete silence in the room, even Magic had stopped making noise. He stared at me, sensing my fear. Or perhaps, he was sensing the approaching predator.

BAM!

My stomach lurched to the point where it felt as if it were lodged in my throat.

BAM! BAM!

It was the door. I told Magic to get in his cage, and he did so very obediently, not like usual when he protests and I basically have to shove him back in.

I began the walk to the steps slowly, but had an eerie feeling of being followed, and I booked it up there as fast as my feet would carry me. At last, I flung open the door, knife still in hand, ready to keep running if need be.

"Hey!" Sarah said, stepping back and putting her hands up. "What's going on?"

"Oh," I said. "I'm sorry. I was just…"

"Worried?" Sarah asked. "Well it's okay. We're not bad guys, so you can put that thing away."

"Sorry," I muttered again, closing the knife.

Sarah stepped inside, followed closely by Jennifer. While Sarah walked straight past me and to my living room, Jennifer stopped in front of me and looked straight at me. She looked me up, then down, then smiled.

"Um…" I said.

"Long story short, Jennifer can see now," Sarah called from the next room.

"Okay…" I said and led Jennifer to the living room, joining Sarah on the couch. "What's the long story?"

Jennifer started signing, and Sarah translated for her hastily. "She wants to get herself a glass of water."

"Here," I said, standing up.

Sarah shook her head. "No, she wants to do it herself."

"Oh," I said. "The kitchen's right there. There's some glasses in the cupboard." I pointed, trying to be helpful. Jennifer gazed at my finger for a moment before following it and looking to the kitchen.

Sarah translated for her and she moved there cautiously, almost as if she expected there to be some unseen obstacle.

I waited for a moment before repeating my question.

"So," I said, "what's the long story?"

"Well," Sarah sighed, putting her feet up on the coffee table. It looked like she hadn't slept at all the night before. "Jennifer has some weird dreams. It's like she talks to God or something, and he tells her these eerie things. Like, once he warned her to stay away from the mall and later that day, we heard that there had been a fire at the GAP."

"Mmhmm," I said skeptically.

"Hey! Coming from the girl who watched an alien try to vaporize himself!"

"Okay, okay fair enough," I surrendered.

"So he came to her last night and told her that she could change into any animal she wanted, so long as she touched it first."

"Really now?" I asked.

"You don't believe me?" Sarah asked.

"Ya think?"

"Well we can all do it," she stated, standing up defiantly.

"Now that's just mean," I snorted. "Come on! That would be so cool that it's just meaner than anything to tease about it. Besides, everything so far has been science-fiction, but now you're just slipping into fantasy!"

Sarah blinked. "Wow," she said. "Can you say 'Bookworm?'"

"Shut up!"

"Anyway, if you don't believe me I'll just prove it to you!"

"Okay then," I laughed. "Let's see this shape-shifting magic!"

Sarah grinned much wider than what seemed natural. I stared at her smile a little warily. It looked kind of creepy. Just as I was ready to laugh and tell her to forget it, her teeth shifted. I blinked and looked again. No, her teeth were definitely moving. Slowly, her canines started to sharpen and her other teeth shrunk. After a moment, she dropped her lips from their ridiculously unnatural place on her cheeks and I saw that they had blackened. The rest of her face was slowly growing more angular. It should have been pretty, turning into a cat, only it really wasn't. Underneath her skin, it looked like things were rearranging themselves. It gave me a feeling of sickness that I'd only felt when I'd seen the andalite.

I turned away and found Jennifer leaning against one of the french doors that led to the kitchen. She was calmly sipping from her glass of water and watching Sarah. When she noticed me looking at her, she did a very simple sign. She pointed her first two fingers at her eyes and then pointed to Sarah. 'Watch her.'

So I did. I watched as her body contorted into an unrecognizable hairball, then slowly continued to the form of a cat.

"Oh wow," I said. "That's… that's a pretty elaborate trick."

((So not a trick! That takes a lot of concentration to do.))

"I did not just hear you speaking like the andalite," I said in disbelief.

((You did.))

"Um…" I was a little dumbfounded. This was way too much for me. "How?" My voice was at a squeak.

((You know that blue box? That tingle what made us able to do it.))

"The blue box!" I said. "It's in my room!"

((I thought-))

DINGDONG!

I had nearly forgotten about Cassidy. I rushed to the door and opened it. "Hey Danielle. What's this big update that you couldn't tell me over the phone? OW!" she yelled as an orange tabby cat slashed at her leg. "Call your attack cat off!"

"Sarah!" I yelled. The cat backed away, hissing.

"You named your cat Sarah? No doubt after Barbie. You're way less cool than I thought you were."

((Oh now you're getting it!))

"--The hell?!" Cassidy didn't have time to move. The cat climbed up onto the banister and leapt at her face with a snarl, making sure that her claws were fully visible before they struck her in the face. I reached over and knocked Sarah to the ground roughly. No prevail, she righted herself in seconds and went for another attack. Cassidy struggled with her, trying to keep the flashing claws and teeth away from her face.

PHWEET!

Someone whistled. I turned to find Jennifer with her little finger and thumb in her mouth, a stern look on her face. Sarah immediately dropped from Cassidy and received a swift kick in the stomach. She ignored it and stalked over to Jennifer.

((C'mon Jenn, I was just having fun!))

Cassidy was much more shaken than I had been. She looked at Sarah with shock. I patted her on the back with a slight smirk. "How about we don't offend the cat?" I asked, just as happy as Sarah was to see the mighty Cassidy brought down to size.

"Okay… okay, I won't offend the cat."

((Damn right you won't!)) Sarah snapped.

"Okay. What the hell?" Cassidy was desperately trying to stay calm.

So I tried to explain. Sarah filled in the parts that I didn't know and we ended up sitting on the couches, all exhausted and our brains near the bursting point.

Jennifer signed something and Sarah translated for our benefit. ((She says she's going to shapeshift.))

"LAME," Cassidy stated, giving the term a thumbs down. "We need to come up with something that sounds cooler than 'shapeshift.'"

((As soon as you've got one, I'll be happy to consider it,)) Sarah snapped.

Jennifer took far less time than Sarah with her shapeshifting. She was done in less than a minute, compared to Sarah's something like three. ((Okay, rule number one, Ellimist said not to stay for more than two hours. I'm not exactly positive what'll happen, but I've got an idea and I don't want to take any chances.))

I expected Sarah to protest, but she obeyed Jennifer. I looked away while she went back to being a person.

"Gross."


	9. Attack Cat

Chapter 9

Cassidy

"What we need to worry about now," Danielle said after averting her eyes from Sarah's disfigured form, "is what we're going to do."

"About what?" Sarah asked.

"About what? About the yeerks! Did you already forget about them? If this is all true, then that was all true too. There's a freaking invasion! Don't you think we should do something?" Danielle was edging on hysteria.

"Of course!" Sarah said. "I just wasn't sure what you meant. We need to figure out how they're hiding an entire invasion."

((We need to start with what we know. Danielle, you knew that lady, didn't you?))

"Yeah, her name's Paula. She's a close friend of my dad's."

((What else do you know about her?))

"Well, she's thirty-four, she lives on the outskirts of town and keeps horses. She works at a pharmacy and at the Sharing-"

Sarah stopped Danielle by hitting herself in the forehead. "Duh! We were just talking about the Sharing! Remember! I even said that they sometimes had momentary lapses in sanity and talked about aliens. The no-body found death rate! All of it fits!"

"Uh, no," Danielle said flatly. "I don't think so."

"Just because—" Sarah started. She was interrupted by a glare from Jennifer.

((Look, I know you don't want to think about it, but we have to consider the possibility. It would explain why she's been acting strangely, wouldn't it?))

"Or she could you know, just be in high school like the rest of us. Teenagers have a tendency to act weird you know!" Danielle protested.

"All the elite members must be controlled by aliens!" Sarah continued.

I felt that I had given them plenty of time to acknowledge my incredulous expression. Since they refused to realize the obvious themselves, I was going to have to shove it down their throats. "Are you all insane?" I demanded angrily.

At least I earned their attention.

"You're all being stupid! What are we supposed to do, huh? Did you see, even, see that freaking raptor thing? Forget that, did you see how he was vaporized? We're no match for that kind of weapon! Are you suggesting that we rush in with ammunition that we have no hope of obtaining and throw _grenades_ at them? Or would you rather we come in as cats and dogs and claw them to death? Sarah, if I could hold you off as a cat, you stand zero chance against one of those monsters!"

Sarah stared at me and I could just about see the steam coming out of her ears. I would have laughed, had I not felt so incredibly cool about getting my revenge for the attack earlier.

"You idiot!" she fumed, "I wasn't thinking about going in with a measly cat! We can use _any_ animal. That means big cats, bears, wolves, bison, rhinos, moose and anything else that can do an assload of damage! And those weapons are slow. Did you see how long it took to charge? If that hork-bajir could jump in front of it, it's just as easy to jump out of its way!"

"Yeah, unless you don't see it because you're trying to avoid those deadly blades!" I said.

"Tell me, Cassidy, were you doing anything else useful with your life?"

"As a matter of fact, yes!"

"Oh really? More useful than saving the whole planet?"

"Shut up you two!" Danielle snapped. "We need to think this out without fighting. Remember, we're the only ones who know about this. We need to stick together."

Sarah, of course, was always translating for Jennifer.

((Well said,)) Jennifer said.

"We need to start with checking out the Sharing," Danielle said. "Cassidy, if you don't want to do anything, you don't have to, but I feel like we should do something."

I considered this. "All I want to say is that I'm not stoked for confrontation. I'll help you guys, but only if you're spying or doing something very low-profile."

"Good," Sarah said with that stupid crazy smile on her face again, "because I've already got a plan."


	10. Rats and Rationality

Chapter 10

Sarah

So we found ourselves at the downtown pet shop. It was difficult to keep our cool, even for me. Every time someone spoke or made any kind of noise I jumped mentally.

To my outside appearance, however, I forced indifference. I knew full well that nobody was about to attack a few teenagers, yet in the back of my mind I suspected everyone. All the people around us might have been hosts to a disgusting creature. I searched for eye contact with everyone, looking for a tell-tale sign that they were with the enemy.

"The mice," Danielle announced quietly. Again, my heart skipped a beat in reaction. I forced myself to breathe normally and glanced at Cassidy. Despite her best efforts, she couldn't hide the fear that was on her face. Good, I would not be outdone by her.

I glanced at each cage tentatively, pretending to be making a serious decision. Really, I suppose it was a serious decision. A slip-up could get me killed. "That one is nice, black and sleek" I said, then pointed to a black mouse.

We had decided it best to act natural. I'm not that good of an actress, but I faked that I knew what I was doing anyway. How hard could it be? I was deciding on a pet mouse.

"I think we should get a brown mouse," Danielle said.

When I told Jennifer this, she nodded. 'I'm sure brown is very nice. It's the color of most floors.'

Okay, so it wasn't the subtlest hint ever, but it got the point across without sparking any suspicion in anyone who might have been around that understood sign language. We wanted a mouse that blended in with the floor to reduce our chances of being discovered.

Jennifer was wearing these ridiculously huge sunglasses and had her eyes closed behind them, to be sure that she could keep up the act that she was still blind. I still had to sign into her hands. The realization had dawned on us that this would be a very difficult miracle to explain. So, instead of basically blurting out to the whole world that Jennifer could see and draw attention to her, we decided to pretend that nothing had changed.

I searched for the most athletic brown mouse I could find. It was a difficult search, considering that they all had been raised in captivity and therefore got almost none of the exercise that a normal mouse would get. "This one might work."

Danielle called the saleslady over. "Can we see this mouse closer?"

"We don't let people handle the mice outside of their cages," she said.

"Please, miss, our friend would really like to pet the mouse before we buy it. She wants to know how it feels," Cassidy said politely, batting her eyelashes ever so slightly. It was an effective speech. The lady had obvious sympathy for our blind friend.

"All right, but you have to be careful. If you let it escape, you either have to catch it or buy it."

"Of course," Cassidy said sweetly. Danielle could hardly hide her bewilderment, but she managed to hold her tongue. Seriously, Cassidy had some amazing acting skills. I was pretty close to laughing out loud myself.

"Here," the saleslady said, handing Cassidy the mouse. It wiggled and crawled along her hands and she allowed it to move freely, moving one hand in front of the other so it had a never-ending walkway. Jennifer held out her hand at my command and received the creature gracefully. She too, used the hand-over hand gesture, but the mouse slowed its pace and eventually stood very still on her hand. She stroked it carefully and then moved her top hand away to let me touch it. I rubbed its head gently with one finger, feeling its essence travel into me. When I was finished, Danielle touched it and the mouse stayed in the same trance. I picked it up and handed it back to the saleslady.

"We'll have to think on it," I translated from Jennifer's signs. The lady smiled and put the mouse back in the cage.

"You're very good with animals," she observed before walking off to find another customer in need.

"Do you think she was one of them?" Cassidy whispered.

I looked back in the direction she had gone. "She seems normal."

"So does Paula," Danielle said so quietly that I was surprised that I had heard her. We walked out of the store in silence.

That silence carried on as we made our way out of the mall. I still felt jumpy, and if I wasn't mistaken, Danielle shuddered every time someone walked past. I'll have to admit that we must have seemed very suspicious, despite our desperate attempts to hide it.

At that point, something in my pocket moved, and I must have leapt three feet into the air. Danielle let out a small yelp of surprise as a loud noise joined in the movement and I landed on her foot. It took a second for me to realize what had happened.

"Rescue me! Oh take me in your arms, rescue me!" The nearly incomprehensible song was blurted out over the two-bit speaker on my cell phone. I dug into my pocket and retrieved the little monstrosity, only to have Cassidy erupt into huge fits of laughter. She doubled over, looking like that was the funniest thing she'd ever seen. I'd deal with her later.

I flipped open the cell phone. "Hello?" I asked of the caller, my hand still shaking a bit from being startled.

"Hello Sarah? Is Jennifer with you?" said a concerned voice on the other side. It was Heather, a girl who worked at the hospital. She sounded on edge.

"Yeah," I said, glad to know that it was only her and not some psycho trying to track us down.

"Good. Look, I don't have much time, but…hey! Let me go! AHHHH!" There was a click, and the line went dead. I think my eyes were popping out of their sockets right then, because Cassidy's laughing screeched to a halt and Danielle was staring at me. I closed the phone slowly, trying to figure out exactly what had happened.

After about ten seconds of more silence, Danielle pressed me to explain. "Who was it?"

I told all three about the call, and immediately Danielle said, "Star sixty-nine. Now."

"What?" Cassidy asked.

I flipped open the phone and pressed the three magical numbers that let me call back the last person that called me. "Hello?" a voice said. I didn't know who it was. I plugged my other ear as Danielle explained the star sixty-nine function to Cassidy.

"Hello, may I please talk to Heather?" I asked, voice still shaky.

"One moment."

I waited about twenty seconds filled with rustling sounds that only added to my anxiety before Heather's voice finally came through the speaker. "Hello?"

I breathed a sigh of relief. "Heather, what happened?"

"Oh, hey Sarah. Happy April fools! Um… three months late!"

"What?" I asked incredulously.

"I was bored and figured I'd make a little prank call. Did I scare you?" Her voice was confident, not at all like there had actually been anything wrong. If she had been scared into saying that as a cover story, it would have shown in her voice.

"A little bit," I said, tension releasing everywhere in my body. "Please, never do that again."

"Oh come on Sarah, it was just a joke," Heather said, laughing lightly. "Next time let us know when you kidnap Jennifer for the night okay?"

"I will," I said. "Bye."

"See you later."

I hung up with a sigh of relief. Danielle immediately inquired about the conversation and I told her what had happened.

"A rude joke to play when someone's on edge," Danielle said.

"She didn't know that," I said defensively.

Cassidy shook her head with an amused look on her face.

"What's your problem?" I asked.

"Oh, nothing."

"It wasn't that funny, you know. If your cell had gone off like that, you would freak too."

"Whatever you say Barbie."

"Don't call me Barbie!" I said angrily.

"Okay Barbie," she replied with a smirk. I swear, I was inches from beating her smug little face in when Danielle intervened.

"Okay, time to go home. Rest up, finish homework, that kind of stuff. I'll see you guys tomorrow at school."

Reluctantly, I grabbed Jennifer's wrist and led her away. She waved goodbye to everyone, but waited until we were safely outside to ask for the whole story in detail. I gave it to her, and she told me once again how I shouldn't have reacted to Cassidy's taunts.

'She's trying to make you mad. Don't let her.'

'Harder than it sounds.'

'Then it sucks to be you. You know, she doesn't tease Danielle.'

'What are you, my mother?'

'Think of me as your conscience,' she said with a huge grin on her face.

'Shut up! I have a conscience of my own!'

'Sure you do.'

"Hey!" I said aloud. Jennifer broke away and ran. I chased her playfully, and it wasn't long before she tripped off the sidewalk and onto the grass beside it, successfully staining her jeans. I laughed as she stood up and brushed herself off, pretending to be dignified.

'Don't even talk to me,' she signed. I laughed again.

'Stay at my place tonight so you don't have to come running over in the middle of the night.'

'And Keri?'

'Heather will feed her. I can't believe that girl! She scared me half to death. Prank calls should be illegal.'

'You know what's scarier?' Jennifer asked.

'What's scarier?'

'It could have been real. It is real. It's happening, and it could have been happening to her.'

A thought struck me. 'Oh God! What if it is?'

Jennifer nodded solemnly, as if she had already known.

'Well, we have to do something!' I signed angrily. Heather had been taken! How had I not known? Of course she wasn't joking, she never played pranks on anyone. 'We have to go to the hospital right now and save her!'

Jennifer grabbed my wrist firmly and yanked me back before I could even move. She opened her eyes behind the sunglasses and looked straight into mine. It was creepy, having never seen her do that before. 'No,' she signed. 'Don't even think about it.'

'What the hell is wrong with you?' I asked. 'We have to save her!'

'Sarah, open your eyes! There is nothing we can do! That thing is in her head, and I doubt it's leaving any time soon. Even if you do manage to get that thing out, what happens then? If you think these things are stupid, you're sadly mistaken. They have _spaceships_. They'll put another one in her head.'

'Then we'll take her away so they can't.' It couldn't have been hopeless. Couldn't have.

'Then they'll take her family, your family, me, you, anyone they can. If this is a secret, they're really good at keeping it that way.'

I narrowed my eyes. 'How do you know that?' Was the person I'd trusted so long something else?

'Don't be stupid Sarah.'

'I'm not being stupid,' I said truthfully.

'It's called rational thinking. You should try it some time. It's all very obvious. Not like I couldn't just figure that out. It's called thinking like the enemy. You have to know what they'll do.'

I was about to retort, but something stopped me. I looked at Jennifer curiously, watching the way she stood, the way she moved and the way she waited for my response with patience. I thought about what would happen if she were one of them. I remembered those raptors and the way Paula had acted. Suddenly, the realization dawned on me. Jennifer couldn't have been one of them. Danielle and Cassidy weren't either. They were the only people in the world that I knew for sure about, the only ones I could trust. I then realized that out of all the billions of people in the world, how truly alone we were.


	11. Shock to the System

Chapter 11

Danielle

There was something about this that spelled insanity and suicide. Maybe it was because I was new to all this, or maybe, even though I really didn't want to believe it, the others were right. What if Kayla was really one of them? What if something went wrong? Would these yeerks know if I was spying on them? Would they kill me if I was caught?

By the time I woke up the next morning, I can say I was genuinely terrified. I had hardly slept all night, imagining the extensive ways our plan could go wrong, even if there were no yeerks in The Sharing.

I decided to take it up with the others at school that morning.

"Sarah," I hissed, coming up behind her and poking her in the back. She turned around, startled. Her face was pale, though she was doing a good job of keeping her expression neutral. Her locker was open beside us and Jennifer was there, still wearing huge sunglasses. Sarah communicated with her one handed, her fingers moving quickly to form shapes.

"What?" she asked me.

"This is a bad idea," I said. I had to be careful. What if people were listening? Could they guess what we were talking about? Enemies could be everywhere.

"I know. That doesn't mean we're going to chicken," Sarah said.

"Yes it does! Do you know how many things could go wrong?"

"You're not the only one who was up all night thinking of all the ways this could blow up in our face," she said. I realized that she was talking for Jennifer now. Could she really do that? She was saying this stuff as if she'd actually thought of it. Wasn't that plagiarism or something? On the other hand, maybe Jennifer was okay with that. She seemed like the kind of person to not mind stuff like that.

"Then why are we even doing this?" I asked.

"Because we need to know. If we don't do this, we'll never know. We have to."

I was about to point out that there were other ways to get information, but someone piped up behind me.

"Have to do what?" Kayla asked.

"Go to the Sharing," Sarah said cheerfully, closing her locker a little louder than necessary. "We wanted to see what it's like." She grinned a very fake grin. "We're going ahead," she hissed in my ear. "Come or don't come."

Well, it wasn't as if I had much of a choice now.

"Cool," Kayla said. "It'll be really great to have you back. It's kinda boring without you."

She was so… normal. She couldn't be infested. The others had to be wrong about the Sharing. Not ALL the elite members were hosts. I looked at her. She didn't look any different. Her voice hadn't changed. Her smile wasn't any different. She still talked the same way. Her walk was still like a casual march. She still fell in step with whomever she was by. She still laughed the same way. Her eyes were still gray-blue. She was still nice to everyone. Caught up in thought, I forgot to respond.

"Earth to Danielle," Kayla said.

But they weren't supposed to seem different, were they? They were supposed to talk like the person, walk like the person, act how the person would act. Their appearance wouldn't change, would it? They wouldn't change. Not much, anyway. So why was I letting myself be fooled? This was just way too far over my head. How was I supposed to know?

"What was that?" I asked.

"I said it's been boring without you. You're really out of it today, aren't you?"

Was that something she would usually say? Was she using different words, different expressions?

"Yeah," I said. "I guess I didn't get enough sleep."

She shrugged. "Okay, well I'll see you later," and headed off to class.

I didn't talk much all day, thinking about this. I badly wanted it to be a nightmare, but somehow I knew that wasn't the case. This was real, whether I liked it or not.

Definitely _not_.

When the end of the day bell finally rang, I had at least three hours of homework to do, considering that I had done nothing in class all day. I walked to my locker and noticed Kayla hanging out with another girl from the Sharing.

"Hey Danielle," Kayla said. "Are you going to the Sharing right away? We'll walk with you."

I looked around. Where were the others? I didn't know where Cassidy's locker was, and Sarah wasn't at hers down the hall.

"Actually, I was supposed to walk with someone else," I said.

"Who?" Kayla asked curiously.

A little voice at the back of my head asked if Kayla was always so inquisitive. I smothered it. She was just curious, that's all. "Cassidy, Sarah and Jennifer," I said, taking another look.

"Really? I saw them leave a minute ago," the other girl said.

"Oh," I said. Even if she was lying, I was cornered now. "Okay, I guess I'll walk with you guys then."

So I did. The other girl introduced herself as Leah. "But you can call me Lee," she said.

"Lee's a full member too," Kayla said. As if I needed to be told. I'd been looking to become a full member for a long time when I was in the Sharing. I knew all their faces.

But I didn't say that. Instead I said, "Cool. What's it like?"

_Ah, good girl Danielle. Keeping yourself on task_, I praised myself.

"It's really fun," Leah said. She began listing all the wonderful things I already knew about the Sharing. "We go on ski trips, camping trips, there's an opportunity for scholarships. We even get discounts," she said as we approached the building. I spotted Cassidy, Sarah and Jennifer already standing outside. Good, that meant I didn't have to worry about them looking for me at the school. But then again, why did they leave without me?

"Really?" Sarah asked as we came into earshot. "Did you guys just say that you get discounts when you're an elite member?"

"Yeah," Leah said. "We get discounts at all sorts of places. The Gap, Mickey D's, even some hair salons."

"She sounds like a walking, talking television commercial," Cassidy whispered as we walked in the door. Kayla heard her and laughed.

The Sharing hadn't changed much since I'd last been there. The white couches were still spectacularly spotless, there was still a small table in the corner covered with junk food and small, random plates of fruits or meat and cheese. The room still buzzed with friendliness. There was the sound of music playing, partially drowned out by the clatter of the pool tables and the chatter between the most unlikely people. Lower class people spoke to spoiled rich people, teenagers to adults, preps to social rejects, everyone seemed equal. It should have made me happy, and it used to. But now, I was creeped out. Why were these people from completely different worlds interacting normally?

"Wow," Cassidy said.

"Cool, huh?" Leah asked. Cassidy gave her a rude look, but she had already turned away, heading to a bookshelf. She picked up a book and handed it to Sarah. "Here, you can read this to your friend."

Sarah clenched her fists. I saw the storm coming on and interjected. "It's Jennifer," I said.

"Sorry," Leah said, obviously not sorry at all. I shot Sarah a warning glance. If anyone was going to get us kicked out and ruin the plan, it was Sarah.

"Actually," I said, "I've got to go to the washroom. Sarah, Jennifer, come with me?"

"No thanks," Sarah said. "I'll wait for you out here." She sat on the white couch and opened the book. Jennifer sat beside her.

What? Was she chickening out on me? Wasn't she the one who told me not to?

"Okay," Kayla said. "Well, Lee and I have to go to a private meeting. We'll be back in about an hour. Make yourselves comfortable."

"See you," Sarah said. When they disappeared behind a door, she looked back up at me. "Now I'll go with you," she said. "We can't be suspicious."

The four of us went into the washroom. Sarah locked the door behind us. "I love these stupid washrooms," she said cheerily. "There are stalls, but there's still a lock on the front door. They'll be so useful."

"You looked pretty pissed back there," Cassidy said. "Why the change?"

"Oh man, I was so ready to punch that chick. Seriously. Does she ever _shut up_? And she even had the nerve to completely ignore the fact that Jennifer has a name."

Jennifer was already shifting, and therefore had no idea what Sarah was talking about while making the change. I was glad. I didn't want to hear her ball Sarah out for trying to protect her. I had to look away though, it was by far the most disgusting thing I'd ever seen.

"Jennifer's got the idea," Cassidy said. "You guys should follow suit."

"Don't start with me," Sarah growled. "You have no authority. I decide when I shift, got it?"

"Whatever Barbie."

Fortunately, Sarah ignored that.

I concentrated on the rat. The changes began almost immediately, but they were long and drawn out. I purposely kept my eyes closed, so I didn't have to watch my body change. The sound and feeling alone made me sick to my stomach. It was really weird, to change out of the familiar body that has always been yours. It was a couple of minutes before I was a full mouse, and I looked up at Cassidy.

_DANGER! DANGER, _my mind warned me. Humans were large, clumsy and liable to attack. I rushed for a hiding place. In my panicked scramble, I ran straight into another rat. It jumped back and made a half-frightened, half-threatening noise that meant it was ready to fight. I braced myself to attack it, pulling back my lips to expose small, but razor-sharp teeth. I could take this guy down. The other rat bared its teeth at me as well, and I leapt at it.

((DANIELLE! What the hell are you doing?)) a voice screamed. I was too preoccupied with the other rat. It fought back, biting my front right leg hard. I lunged at its neck and felt teeth sink into my own. I froze. Now I heard a booming human voice yelling.

"Sarah! You're going to hurt her!"

((Shut up or you'll attract attention! Danielle, you're acting like a real rat. Snap out of it!))

It took me a little while to figure out what she meant. ((Oh,)) I said, taking another minute to understand the scene. Sarah had to be the rat biting into my neck. In front of me was another rat who had to be Jennifer. She had been the one I fought with. Her eyes were still fixed on me and her teeth were still exposed, confused by the addition of another rat to the scene but ready to fight both of us if she had to. ((Crap.))

((Are you good now? Can I let go?))

((Yeah,)) I said, feeling a little foolish, but frightened by what had happened. Sarah let go of my neck, leaving small, though painful puncture marks in my skin. ((Ow…))

((What about you Jennifer?)) she asked the other rat. Jennifer just stared, still braced for an attack.

((Jennifer?)) I asked. How were we going to snap her out of it?

((Jennifer, it's me, Sarah. I won't hurt you. We're on a mission, remember? You're not a rat, you're a person.))

It was a few tense moments before Jennifer relaxed. ((I'm sorry,)) she said. ((It's like I really was a rat.))

((I think that's the point,)) I said. ((Maybe our minds are rat minds. Or at least partly.))

((Makes sense,)) Jennifer said. ((Fundamental instinct. Animals wouldn't survive without it.))

((Well it didn't bother me much,)) Sarah said. ((I mean, I—the rat was sort of scared at seeing Cassidy, and a little angry to see the other rats, but all I had to do was remind myself that my name was Sarah and I was a person and it went away.))

That annoyed me a bit. Was she bragging that she was stronger than we were? It wasn't fair. I didn't even have a chance to think, I was so caught up in being a rat.

"Why is Jennifer even coming?" Cassidy asked. "It's not like she'll understand anything anyone says anyway."

Sarah relayed the message to Jennifer.

((Sarah can translate for me,)) she said.

"But the more of you there are, the more likely you'll get caught."

((What are they gonna do,)) asked Sarah, ((throw us out?))

"Unless aliens kill rats," Cassidy said. "Whatever, just be careful. And if you get caught, don't you even dare tell them that I'm well, one of you."

((Awwwww…)) Sarah teased. ((You admitted it. I'm touched.))

"Whatever, just don't rat me out." She paused. "No pun intended."

I laughed, but no one else did. I still wasn't sure if I was willing to believe that the Sharing was full of aliens or not. But heck, I was a rat, right? Why not?

Cassidy opened the door, checked if the coast was clear, then pointed us down the hallway where the private meeting was supposedly being held. There were voices coming from behind only one of the three doors, so it wasn't hard to figure out where to go.

((Only one of us should go in,)) Jennifer said. ((The other two stay out here to listen. Then we have one pair of eyes and three pairs of ears and a way less chance of being seen.))

((I'll go,)) Sarah and I said at the exact same time.

((It's going to be dangerous,)) Sarah said. ((You stay here with Jennifer and I'll go in.))

I thought about that offer, but I wasn't excited about letting Sarah play the hero and go in on her own. From what I'd seen of her so far, she was likely to attack someone, even as a rat. And she probably wouldn't even bother to hide either. I shook my head. ((No. Bad idea. Maybe Jennifer should go in.)) Sarah was opposing _me_ going in, so I was trying to compromise.

((No, that's a worse idea,)) Jennifer said. ((I'm new to two of five senses. I won't understand half of what's going on. It should be Danielle that goes in.))

((But--)) Sarah began. She must have been cut off by Jennifer's telepathic whisper, because I couldn't hear what was being said, sort of like a disturbance in the distance that I couldn't quite place. It ended as Sarah said, ((Fine. But if you get into trouble I'm coming in after you.))

((Okay,)) I said, and poked my nose at the bottom of the door. ((But how am I supposed to get in?))

Sarah rolled her eyes mentally. I could feel the expression the way that I could feel Jennifer's thoughts. ((You're a rat. Duh. Collapsible skeleton?))

((Oh,)) I said, pushing my head under the door. There was a sensation almost as disgusting as morphing, and soon, I was under the door and then out the other side, my skeleton snapping back into place. There were a few boxes underneath a school desk in a corner, and I hid behind them. It was beyond perfect, because I had been worrying about where I was going to hide. There were people sitting around the table, including Kayla and Leanne. About seven more people were sitting around. Nobody spoke. Finally, someone walked in from an adjacent room and sat down, and the meeting began.

Leah stood up, and everyone looked up at her respectfully. I couldn't believe my luck. I could see every single person at the table clearly, excluding two at the back. The only part of them I saw was their legs. Maybe if I climbed a little on the boxes…

"Baro five-eight-nine. Report," Leah said.

I froze. What did she say? That didn't sound like a normal name. Maybe I was mistaken.

"Recruitment is down five percent. At first, it was just a small change, but it's starting to become a problem. We've been thinking it over for a while, and Tim has come up with a brilliant idea." The man smiled, though several people at the table did nothing to hide disgusted looks.

I was still trying to climb up and listen at the same time.

((What's going on? Are you okay?)) a voice hissed. I jumped a little in surprise. Luckily, no one noticed. I had completely forgotten that Sarah was waiting on me for information.

((Daijobu,)) I said, distracted. I wanted to hear what they were saying.

((What?))

I stopped climbing. ((Sorry. I'm okay.)) Okay, so call me a dork. I have this love of Japanese anime, and I'd picked up a few sayings through reading English subtitles. Hence, I had a fairly annoying habit of responding to simple questions in Japanese. Kayla did it too, though she was doing it less and less lately.

"What is that?" Leah said. It had been a long silence. I wondered if she had heard me, until I realized that she was prompting the man called Baro.

"We think that the Sharing should have a concert. It would really attract high-school attention, and they're the ideal members."

Leah smiled. "Yes, that is a very good idea. You, you and you will organize," she said, pointing out three of the younger members. "Get a good band. Or a couple. It'll be cheaper if they're ours too, so shoot for that."

"Yes, sub-visser," the three said. All my hair stood on end and I felt sick.

((Did she just say what I think she did?)) Sarah asked.

((Yes,)) I said. ((I think she did.))

((Who's all there?)) Sarah prompted. ((We should start noting who's all in this thing.))

((There's Leah, Kayla, that guy she called Baro and…)) I finished my climb and nearly fell off the boxes.

((And?)) Sarah asked.

((I can't recognize the other two,)) I said. I don't know why I didn't tell them. Maybe it was my better instincts, or maybe I just plain didn't want them to know. They might have hurt him or something.

((Are you sure?))

((Yeah,)) I lied. My heart was beating very fast, because at the back of the table sat Mark. My brother. I had trusted him. I was even playing with the idea of telling him about it earlier in the day. But I couldn't even trust the big brother that I had grown up with. I was so upset that I nearly missed what happened next.

"Now we have some fantastic news!" Leah said. "The andalites have been thwarted as of today. Visser three would like to inform us all that he has personally taken care of Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul, hailed andalite prince."

A cheer erupted in the room. Leah made no move to quiet them, only smiled a strangely sadistic smile that scared me stiff. When the noise died down she spoke again.

"It's even better. Another andalite has been captured… alive." This time there were no cheers. Everyone stared politely at Leah. "The new host was given to its captor, the former sub-visser twenty-two. Now known as Visser Nine!"

This time the cheer was a roar. Only three of them didn't seem so happy about it, but they faked smiles and clapped anyway.

"Does this mean that the bug ships overseas will be operational?" Kayla asked. I shuddered at her use of a term that only a yeerk would know.

"Most of them, yes," Leah replied. "Some are still in for repairs, but we shouldn't need to risk anyone's starvation. How many days has it been?"

"Two, on my good friend's part, but she told me this morning through the human electronic connection that others are on their third and final day of starvation. I was concerned that if the ships were not arriving before noon—"

"There is no need for that. Obviously the Vissers would not risk any of their people, nor would they want any hosts running around free because their yeerks died of starvation. You can rest assured that all meeting places were covered by ten-thirty this morning by this area's time."

"Thank Kandrona," Kayla breathed.

"Have we any other news?" Leah asked. There was no answer. "Dismissed, then. You three!" She pointed in the general direction of the three assigned to the concert. "Begin work on this show immediately! When you waste time, you're wasting the entire Empire's time." With that, she walked briskly toward the side door.

I relayed the whole thing to Sarah and Jennifer. Not much had to be said, seeing as how Sarah heard everything and translated for Jennifer immediately.

Slowly, people emptied from the room. I was concerned that Sarah and Jennifer would be discovered in the hallway, but it seemed as if they were going to be fine.

Finally, only Mark and the man named Baro were in the room. Before they could leave, I hopped down from the boxes and slipped out the room, leading Jennifer and Sarah back to the washroom without a word. Cassidy saw us approaching and pushed the door open for us. We all scurried into different stalls and Cassidy passed us our clothes from inside her backpack. We left the building as fast as we could, insisting on the need to finish homework.


	12. Rash Descisions

Chapter 12 

Jennifer

We were walking down the street. I hadn't yet ditched the sunglasses, but my eyes were open. I had given up on worrying about it for a while. We had bigger fish to fry.

Sarah, of course, helped me out by translating.

'So we know how they're hiding,' Cassidy said. 'That's good. Now we know how to avoid getting one of those things in our heads.'

'It's hard to believe,' Danielle said. 'I wanted to be a full member for so long, and I was so mad that they refused me before, but now I'm really glad. I mean, just imagine…'

'That would be the "if it sounds too good to be true" rule at work right there,' Cassidy commented.

'The question is what we do now.' Sarah said. 'Now that we have knowledge, how do we use it?'

'Well, sounds like they starve after three days without some kind of food. I'm guessing it's a special kind of food, because they were talking about getting shipped up to get some. Maybe if we could cut off the source of food…' I let everyone think about that for a second.

'They would all die,' Sarah said slowly. There was a long pause.

I wasn't quite sure if I liked that idea. As much as I hated the thought of these things taking over our brains, I'm not a sadist. I didn't want them to die, just to go away. I needed time to think about this. 'First things first though,' I said, hoping to distract attention from the idea of slaughtering thousands. 'I don't feel safe in the hospital right now. I think I need to find another place to live.'

'What?' Sarah asked. 'Why?'

'Look, I think they're in the hospital. If Heather really was taken, then I'm thinking that the patients aren't far in the future. Besides, I can be of more help if I don't have to go to school.'

'Wait wait wait wait wait,' Sarah signed vigorously. 'Not going to school? I thought you were talking about moving in with me!'

'No. Your dad won't let Keri in his house. I couldn't give Keri up.'

'So what are you talking about?'

I paused. Did I really want to say it? Was I sure? But I knew the answer. I couldn't keep pretending. If a normal life was what it cost me, then so be it. I took a deep breath, letting it fill me with energy. 'I'm talking about disappearing,' I signed. Sarah waited a moment before speaking to the others to translate.

'You're talking about what?' Danielle asked. I watched her face. I didn't have much experience, but she seemed to be preoccupied with something else even while there was obvious shock at my suggestion.

'I've been thinking about the yeerks being at the hospital. I'm not positive, but I think Heather's taken. It's not safe for me there. What if they find out that I know?'

'So move in with me,' Sarah said angrily. 'We'll find a home for Keri and you can visit her.'

'No,' I signed.

Everyone sort of stared at me, uncomprehending. This was likely what was meant by the term 'blank stare.'

'I think I'm going to fake death,' I continued bravely. 'I can only pretend to be blind for so long, and besides, you guys need someone who can spy without needing to go to school. I can morph fast, so I'll be fine living in the woods.'

'Wait, woods?' Sarah asked.

'Where else did you want me to go?' I shot back.

'I have a place,' Danielle said. 'There's a treehouse out on my property. It's by a clearing and my parents promised not to go there a long time ago. I don't think they'd bother the place. None of the riding routes go through it, and it's a really, really nice treehouse.'

'That sounds perfect,' I signed. 'Now, how are we going to do this so people stop looking for me?'

Sarah nearly exploded. 'What if you ever want to come back?' she demanded. 'You can't just pretend to die and then pop back up the next minute. You're not thinking this through! What about going to school and learning and getting a job? What about your future?' Her eyes were wild. She was furious. Her face was gaining more color by the second.

I smiled at her as calmly as I could, 'I never had a real future,' I signed. 'You've always had to help me with everything. Now I have a chance to be independent and I want to take it. If I stay in school and pretend to be blind and deaf when I don't have to be, what's the point? You can teach me what you learn at school. I'll learn to read and then I can read your textbooks. Normal society isn't built for me. I need to do this to be free.'

Sarah cast her eyes down. After a pause she said, 'Okay.'

'Man, you guys are nuts,' Cassidy commented. 'But this sounds too fun to pass up. I'm in.'

And so I told them my plan on the way down to the riverside, in search of a fisherman.

**A/N: Ahh! Chapters are getting shorter! Before anybody complains about what Jennifer is doing, I want to assure you that yes, it is indeed a rash and almost stupid descision. Jennifer is scared. Really scared. I think it's something like the sixth book that I'm going to have that is completely about her--hopefully I get that far with this--and you'll be able to see more about her character.**

**Only a few more chapters left of this book :D**


	13. Chi?

Chapter 13

Danielle

I wasn't happy about this plan. Not happy at all. But it was Jennifer's choice, I suppose. I had nodded, given my input and comforted both Jennifer and Sarah. This was going to be hard on Jennifer, but I had a feeling that it would be even worse for Sarah.

It was to happen the next day. I had already milled over about twenty ways it could go wrong before I entered my front door.

"Hey," Mark said.

My eyes went steely. I had momentarily been distracted from the notion that Mark was one of them. Now I was reminded, and once again remembered that yeerks needed to eat every few days.

"Whoa," Mark said in response to my glare, "who ran over your dog?"

I grimaced at the teasing, no longer finding it affectionate and harmless. "Never mind," I growled.

I'll tell you something that you probably don't know about me. I never growl. NEVER. I'm not that kind of person. It made me feel guilty the minute I'd said it.

But the real Mark would have asked me what was wrong. The yeerk decided it wasn't worth his time, and only raised Mark's eyebrows.

I didn't feel so bad anymore.

All through dinner, I gazed across the table at Mark, pretending to be daydreaming. As much as we had argued in the past, I had never felt any kind of distaste towards my brother until now.

"And how was your day sweetie?" my mom asked.

"Boring," I said with a yawn, pretending to snap out of my daydream. My eyes darted back to my brother, and our gazes met. It wasn't just an acidental glance, he had been waiting. He sent me a silent message of "I need to talk to you," and I was suddenly very, very nervous. I was frozen, mid-yawn when I realized that I had to act natural. "You know, teachers giving lots of homework and stuff. Speaking of which," I took a final bite of my salad and piled my dishes together, "I should probably get on it," I finished after swallowing the lettuce. "Can I be excused?"

"I suppose," my dad said.

I piled my dishes in the sink and took off down the stairs. I should have acted calmer, but I was panicking.

He knew! He had to have known! He was going to kill me, or put one of those things in my head. I was dead now. As good as dead. The others would be taken too, and it would be all my fault! How had he found out?

"Damn!" I said under my breath.

Okay, breathe. Breathe. Breathe. It was going to be okay. But I couldn't convince myself. I had to warn the others. No. Couldn't. I couldn't tell them because I hadn't told them about Mark earlier. I couldn't tell them I had lied.

It took almost an hour to calm myself down. I had gotten out my homework and was sitting at my desk with a pencil in my hand. I drummed my partially chewed off fingernails on the desk. In the time it had taken for me to start breathing regularly, Mark had gone into his own room across the hall from mine and picked up his guitar. Plucked-out notes floated into my room, and his humming voice sent shivers up my spine. It was like he was calling me, daring me to come to him. I wouldn't be able to just sit there much longer. I was antsy, and the thoughts running through my head were beginning to torture me.

I could go to his room and let him catch me, or I could stay in my room and wait for him to come in and get me.

There was only one option left.

I followed the sounds of the guitar. Strange, even though they were only single notes strung together, combined they were a beautiful melody that I couldn't quite place.

I opened his door soundlessly. His closet blocked me from his view from his bed. I could hear the guitar more clearly now. I was glad for it. It masked my breathing, my footsteps. I was going to do this. I searched around for a weapon, anything, but I found nothing. I was going in unarmed. Why hadn't I thought about this more? I was going to be overpowered in a second. I was starting to turn back when I heard him pluck a deliberately sour note. I froze.

"Danielle," he said quietly. He had stopped playing.

I knew that I couldn't run. It was best to stay and fight here than to run out of the house and let him call for backup. No. I couldn't give him that chance.

"Yes," I said steelily, stepping out from around the corner. It occcurred to me that he still might not know that I knew what he was. Yes, maybe the glance had been a fluke. A trick of my imagination.

"You won't be able to starve me," he said. "Sit down."

The words 'starve me' hit me like a slap in the face. No. He knew.

I looked at him, sitting on the bed, still holding the neck of his guitar. His expressions were normal. Concern, sadness. Either he was sincere or a really good liar. He patted the bed as if I were a dog or something. As if I was just going to forget that I had seen him nodding and smiling when he heard that Janraf had become a slave. How was I supposed to sit beside him just like that? "No."

Silence.

"What are you going to do with me?" I asked warily. It sounded weak, like I was surrendering or something, but I didn't care. At that point I was so afraid that I'd have been relieved if he said he was going to shoot me and get it over with quickly.

"I have no choice but to tell you the truth now," he said. "But I swear that I wouldn't hurt you. Couldn't."

I wanted to laugh and ask him if he really thought I would believe that. But I didn't.

"How did you know?" I asked him. "And why don't you think I can starve you right out of that head?" I was building confidence. Threatening him. Asking for it—I knew—but if keeping him talking kept me alive, I wanted all the answers.

"I'm not like them Danielle," he said.

I wanted to say bull, but I kept quiet. Something you probably know about me by now is that I'm not half as brave as I wish I was.

"I'm going to tell you my story from the beginning, but you need to promise not to jump ahead of me."

"Okay," I said. Good. If he wanted to talk, I was game. As long as he wasn't stalling while backup arrived. Then again, why would he even need backup to deal with me?

"My story starts a long time ago, with a race called the Pemalites, who created themselves companions called Chee."

"Chi?" I asked. It sounded like a character from a show I had watched not long ago.

And quite suddenly, Mark wasn't standing there anymore. Instead, there was an ivory android that seemed to look almost like a puppy standing upright. Only he was tall. Taller than me.

"I guess mom and dad never told you I was adopted, did they?" Mark's voice asked. "They didn't want you to feel like I was an outsider." I swear, the ivory dog grinned. "They didn't know the half of it."

o0o0o0o

It took all night for me to understand. All night to hear the story of the Chee and then the story of the yeerks. And then he told me not to tell the others.

It was seven o'clock in the morning where he asked this of me.

"Why?" I asked. "Why can't I tell them?"

And he answered simply, "Because they wouldn't understand."

**A/N: ****Danielle is very curious, and I would have to write an entirely new book to tell you everything she asked and everything she was told. Sorry about that, but I'm far too eager to continue. **

**The more reviews I get, the faster I'll post, so please press that little button down in the corner!**


	14. Second Thoughts

**A/N: Some of my reviewers lately have been asking questions that I think everyone should get answers to, so I'm going to start** **posting the answers here.**

**Squito:** Really nice. Though...are they ever going to free Elfangor's cousin? And do they meet up with the Animorphs later on?

**Hmmm, I'm not sure if they'll be freeing him, but they will be seeing him soon. As for the Animorphs, yes, they will meet. But I'm going to put a couple of books in first, so I won't get to that for a while yet. I hope that also answers Walks in the Shadows' question.**

**Chinmayi: **Poor Jennifer. But I guess she's pretty smart, so that's okay.  
I'm wondering, is Jennifer going to become a nothlit by any chance?

**I know I already answered that personally, but it was a good question. So far, no. Jennifer is not planned to become a nothlit.**

**Squito:** Yeah, I'm sure everyone should know about the Chee anyway. Very big surprise! Does he know about her involvement in the war so far?

**Yes. That's why he told her what he was. He knew that she was the mouse, you know, Chee and their sensors :P**

Okay, on with the chapter :D

o0o0o0o

Chapter 14

Sarah

Everything was set. We were prepared. If we had been given three weeks more, we couldn't have been more prepared.

That was why, Monday morning, I was sitting in my first class, rapping my fingernails on the desk and generally panicking. There was so much that could have gone wrong. So many problems. So much that they had not considered. Jennifer was giving up everything. Giving up on school, on ever having a boyfriend, on her life…

On me.

I curled my fingers into a tight fist, my fingernails digging into skin. It hurt, but I welcomed the pain. I slammed my fist downwards on my desk, making it shake.

"Sarah, is there a problem?" the teacher asked. Her voice was kindly stern and threatening.

"No," I said.

"Where is Jennifer today?" she asked. She hadn't yet finished taking attendance.

"I don't know," I admitted, my tongue suddenly feeling as if it had swelled to twice its size. It was all part of the plan. All part of Jennifer's plot to escape her obligations of blindness. I cursed her silently for being so selfish. "She wasn't there when I went to pick her up this morning."

Everyone knew that we spent every minute of the day together. Everyone knew that when she was sick I stayed home with her until she was better. But only a few people showed any interest in this at all.

The teacher raised her eyebrows and made a marking on her attendance sheet.

Absent, Unexcused.

I winced at the thought that her name would soon be stricken right off the list.

It was nearing nine o'clock. Cassidy would make her entrance soon. I was waiting. I knew how it would go down, knew my lines. I had rehearsed this scene so many times. I knew it perfectly. Exactly.

But when Cassidy burst into the room, panting and sweating, all eyes on her, I found that I wasn't ready.

"Cassidy!" Our teacher shouted indignantly. "What—"

"It's that girl Jennifer," Cassidy interrupted. "She's on the bridge. She's gonna jump!"

It took me a second to register that it was just an act. The words Cassidy said sounded too much like her, too real to be an act.

"WHAT?" I yelled, surprising even myself. I was up and out the door, passing Cassidy, pushing her aside in panic. Her face, confused, nodding. Running through the hallways, someone yelling at me. It was all automatic. I hardly had to try to act. It just had to happen. I had to stop her. Stop her from throwing her life away. From throwing me away. Had to.

People were following. Didn't care. Running out the front doors of the school. Running down the street. Running.

I was out of breath. My lungs were screaming, but I still refused to stop. My legs kept going at a sprint.

And suddenly, there she was. It was like something from a movie. She was standing on the rail, holding the gigantic orange supporting beam. She was slim, tiny even. Her short hair was tucked behind her ear, but it was still being blown all over the place by the wind. She stared blankly over the water, no emotion on her face.

Her legs were self-bound by a rough rope. I had no idea where she'd gotten it. Maybe the hospital. There was a small, twenty-pound weight tied there as well. The idea was that she wouldn't be able to get back to the surface with twenty extra pounds and no use of her legs. She wasn't a good swimmer to begin with, and that's what worried me.

"JENNIFER!" I yelled, knowing that she couldn't hear me. Knowing that it would be too late by the time I got there. Still running. "Jennifer, stop!"

((She's here,)) a voice in my head. No… No. It was Danielle. Danielle who had called in sick so that she could tell Jennifer when to jump. When everyone was watching. There was nothing I could do to convince them that I wasn't just acting. It was going to happen. I had stopped running at the end of the bridge. I was afraid that if I got any closer, Danielle would make the signal.

Only now did I notice the people coming up behind me. They were coming to see what the noise was about. Cassidy had alerted as many classes as she could. Nearly half of the school was running out the front door and down the block toward us. It was going to be over soon. There was no traffic on the bridge. Not surprising, it led to a residential area. Out of the way for most people.

I started towards her, walking slowly now. I had to tell her without triggering the signal. Had to stop this idiocy.

((Ready,)) Danielle said.

Jennifer turned her head. Slowly. Deliberately. It was for show. Her eyes looked blankly over the crowd. They focused for only a second on me. Both my hands shot into the air, palms out in a signal anyone would recognize.

"NO!" I yelled. Not a long, drawn-out no like in the movies, but a short scream. It would have been longer, but I choked on the sound.

((Now.))

And it happened. Just like that. She didn't bend her knees and jump. She didn't dive. She just leaned. Leaned into empty space. Her hand slipped from the support beam in slow motion and she disappeared over the edge.

I dashed to the place she had been moments before and reached over the edge helplessly. Trying to save her from herself. I was helpless as she dropped to the water. It was a long way. I spent a good five seconds staring before she hit the water. I remembered myself, and yelled in partly real agony.

Everyone had caught up. Some had also watched from the rail. I jumped into acting mode, though I should have been there already.

I kicked off my shoes and dropped my sweater. I held my breath as I tried to climb up onto the rail. Someone's hand around my wrist. Gentle.

"Come down," someone's voice said. Kayla. I looked down at her. Wanted to push her away. 'Get away from me, you filthy thing,' but no. No. Step down.

Tears were running down my cheeks. Real tears. Why did it have to be Kayla to try and stop me? I jerked my arm away from her. But I wasn't down yet. The sudden motion knocked me off balance. My arms pinwheeled wildly in the air. Slowly. Slowly, I was leaning over thin air. Just like Jennifer had. Oh god, I was going to fall. What if I hit my head? What was going to happen?

I stopped. A grip on my forearm. A pull. I fell forward onto the pavement. Road rash. Wind knocked out of me.

Look up, up to see who it was.

Kayla.

Kayla had saved my life.

((Nice acting,)) Jennifer's voice said to me. ((By the way.))

I looked at the rat sitting a few feet away, watching me. Nearly laughed. It hadn't been an act at all. But what was I going to say? "Tell her thanks," I whispered.

**A/N: You guys like it? Please give me some feedback. I did something slightly different for this one. You may have noticed the some hundred sentence fragments in here, and I hope they gave the right effect. Let me know what you thought!**


	15. Three Small Words

Chapter 15

Cassidy

It was several days after Jennifer's "death," and she had already made herself at home at Danielle's house. Everyone at the school was in such a weird mood after the whole thing that there would be no homework and almost zero schoolwork all week. People had begun to calm down and go back to normal, but there was an edge on their voices, as if they felt it had been their fault.

"Hey," he said.

"Hey," I replied.

And we walked for a very long time before saying anything else. My hand was in his, neither of us putting in any real effort to keep them together, they just stayed. It was as if they had some sort of a magnetic attraction.

I didn't know why he had chosen me. I thought I would never know. Out of all of the beautiful, thin, petite girls in our school, all of the perfect little Barbie dolls like Sarah, he chose me. And in a way, it made me feel beautiful. And in another way, it made me feel ugly for being thought of as so different from them.

I was. There was no denying that. But that didn't make me stop wondering if being different was good or bad.

I looked up at him and our eyes met. He had been staring at me, in his eyes there was a look of deep sadness, like a child giving his loyal old mutt up to the vet and watching it be carried into the back room where a needle would be slipped under its skin and…

"Cassidy?" he asked. There wasn't so much sadness in his voice as there was curiosity.

I forced a smile. "Yeah?"

"What's wrong?" his sadness had melted into concern, and it took quite a lot of effort to convince myself that it hadn't been concern all along.

I forced my cheeks back into a wider smile, almost a grimace. "Nothing, I'm just tired." Tired. My answer to that question every time. And he knew, but he didn't ask any more.

I walked beside him, feeling his hand against mine and wondering if it was still his hand to control. I wondered if the words he said were really his words or if they were from a yeerk that was going through the motions and pretending. But why would he even bother going out with me then? A yeerk wouldn't waste his time in keeping a girlfriend.

However stupid it was, I held on to that little bit of logic. I didn't know what I'd do if he was one of them. An image of him standing in front of me with one of those deadly little guns pointed between my eyes flashed across my mind. I gave an involuntary shudder as prickles went up my spine. What would I do if he were taken? What would happen if he joined the Sharing? What if he found out about me? Would I be able to fight him, maybe kill him in order to get away? No. Definitely not. I might have been able to resist anyone else, but if Mark were one of them, if he came after me, I would be forced to surrender.

I know that every teenage girl with a boyfriend will undoubtedly tell you the same thing, but what I felt with Mark was real. There were no questions, no doubt at all in my mind that I loved him. But to what degree?

I wondered what he would do if he were in my place. Would he fight the yeerks to save me, his sister and possibly everyone else on the planet?

I looked up at him, but I didn't even need to ask. The answer was yes. His expression was troubled and his eyes were blinking fast, as if he was trying to hold back tears, but his eyes weren't watery.

He noticed that I was looking at him and pulled his hand away from mine to scratch behind his ear. He stopped walking and I was aware of how gorgeous he looked even when he was troubled.

"Cassidy, I need to tell you something," he started. I stopped walking with him.

He was going to say it to me. Finally. "What?" I asked, smiling a reassuring smile to make him less nervous.

"There's something important I haven't told you yet."

Right then, as if on cue, the sound of Sum 41 came blasting out of his pocket. "Sorry," he muttered. He pulled out his cell and answered it.

I tuned out, feeling it rude to listen in on his conversation.

"Cassidy," he said. I turned back around. "It's Danielle. She wants to talk to you."

I took the phone from him. "Yeah?" I asked.

"Hi Cassidy," Danielle said. "I'm glad we tracked you down because—"

Whatever she was about to say was interrupted by a voice in the background.

"Give. Me. That. Let me talk to her!" It was Sarah, struggling to grab the phone from Danielle.

Evidently, she succeeded.

"Hey, Cassidy. Guess what? We're thinking about doing something totally nuts and insane in every sense of the word. We'll probably die too. You in?" She definitely expected me to say no.

I looked back at Mark, who was waiting patiently to tell me something I already knew. Something that I would answer with the words "me too." I thought about how he would do the same thing for me. He would do just about anything for me. I grinned a crazy smile that would put Sarah to shame.

"Yeah," I said, "I'm in. See you in twenty." And I hung up.

To Mark, I said "Now, what were you going to say?"

And he said three magical words that made my heart leap.

….

**A/N: In case anyone caught that or was kind of getting a feeling... yes, Mark was going to tell her about being a Chee, but he changed his mind and said something all sappy instead. Awwww… Isn't that sweet? That's the end of book one, boys and girls. I'll be posting book two as soon as I can. Thanks for reading!**


	16. ANNOUNCEMENT

Just letting everyone know that the second book is out. Shifters 2: In Love And War. Please read it and let me know what you think :D


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